Making the best of it
by X-magicalmystery-X
Summary: Hermione's life was going just fine until a new law from the ministry messed it all up, now she will be forced to marry some one she barely knows and adjust to the new life that comes with her marriage... REVIEWS PLEASE!
1. Chapter 1: The letters

Disclaimer: If I owned it, believe me, you would know about it

Chapter one: the letters...

It was barely mid-morning but already the temperature had reached 30 degrees. It was one of those rare days in the British summer that seem to define that summer in everybody's memories for years to some.

Hermione Granger stretched and yawned lazily. It was too hot to care about anything much. She had been reading but felt her eyes beginning to close as she read the same sentence for the 4th time so she gave up and instead rested the open book on her face as a kind of sunscreen. She could hear Harry and Ron playing exploding snap as quietly as they could, just to her right and Ginny heaved a deep sigh as she tried in vain to escape the heat that affected her so badly.

The peace was perfect, they had lounged around all morning and, when it cooled this afternoon, she and Ginny planned to go swimming in the nearby lake. They made the most of the time they spent together nowadays, just the four of them. Their careers and lifestyles pulled them all in very different directions and it was a rare moment that they could all spend together. Especially now, the awful marriage decree had been introduced by the ministry, despite all of their best attempts to fight it and it seemed it would remain, for now at least. Hermione could still remember every word of the awful letter she had received the day before yesterday:

'_Monday, 19__th__ of June_

_Miss Granger,_

_I am sure you have been aware of the ministry's plan to introduce new legislation concerning marriages in the wizarding world for some time. I am pleased to inform you in this letter that the legislation has been passed by the Wizengamot with a majority of 52%. This means that, from midnight tonight, any unmarried witch or wizard between the ages of 19 and 40 must marry._

_The legislation also means that divorce or annulment will not be possible for at least 5 years and that, during those 5 years, the couple must have at least one child. Please kind enclosed a booklet containing all further rules and regulations that you will need to be aware of._

_The ministry will be matching you to your marriage partner based on whom we feel would be most compatible with your present situation. You may expect our owl by midday on Friday, enjoy your week._

_Sincerely_

_Veronica Kinsey_

_Internal Affairs Office_

_Ministry of Magic'_

Being 22 Hermione fell well within the ministry's planned age bracket. It was true that she had been aware of the proposed legislation for quite some time but she still wasn't prepared for the utter fury that bubbled inside her and threatened to erupt. She had apperated to the Burrow immediately as she had been told to do if she received a letter like this.

The scene that confronted her on entering the kitchen temporarily stunned her. Charlie Wesley sat at the table looking furious; several pieces of broken cutlery lay around him. The twins hunched over the table, brooding, no smile graced their faces. Opposite them Ginny wept into Harry's shoulder, he just sat there looking astonished, Ron just sat there too, pale and unmoving. For once Mrs. Weasley seemed as a loss for what to do.

For Hermione this was a godsend. She hadn't been sure how to handle the situation but now she found an outlet in dealing with everybody else's fears. She made cups of tea, repaired the cutlery. She assured Ginny that she would be matched with Harry, soothed the twins and Charlie, finally reaching Ron. She shook him, she called him and she put her face right up close to his, yet she could not make his eyes refocus. Eventually, she heaved a sigh and then pinched him, hard. He jumped and looked at her reproachfully

"Ow" he frowned, rubbing his forearm furiously. The twins began to laugh, albeit slightly hysterically, and this eased the tension somewhat.

That was her mission over the next few days, to take care of everyone. When she wasn't at work, she was at the Burrow soothing, cajoling and occasionally brandishing her wand, as the situation required. This way she could be of use but, at the same time, she could avoid having to deal with her own feelings of terror and indignation. She and the twins had been doing their best to keep everybody calm and as cheerful as possible.

It was now Wednesday and for the moment in which they all led under the tree; they were as peaceful as they had ever been before that day. The silence was shattered by a crack by Hermione's left ear as the twins and Charlie appeared.

"Well, you're all rather lazy aren't you?" Charlie grinned at them as Hermione peeked out from under her book. He flopped down beside them. Hermione smiled and lowered her book back over her face.

"It's too hot to do anything much right now" mumbled Ginny, shuffling closer to Harry.

"Ah, dear sister, you may be wrong there" grinned George

"Yes indeed" Fred continued "George and I have been devising a plan for how we may appropriately and maturely spend this afternoon"

The next thing Hermione heard was a shriek and a yell. She looked up to see Ginny soaking wet, Harry had been splashed due to his closeness to Ginny. The twins were grinning and holding what looked like hundreds of water bombs. Ginny took off her t shirt, leaving her in a bikini top and a skirt, to prevent any of her other clothes being soaked. The water bombs were duly divided between the group; even Charlie agreed to play, and the war began.

Hermione was surprisingly good at it, successfully dodging a lot of bombs and hitting several people. That is, until one of the twins caught her right on the chest, soaking her top. They all braced themselves, prepared for the explosion that they were sure would follow. She stared at her shirt for a second and then she just laughed. In the same way Ginny had done, she stripped off her shirt and chased after the offending twin in her bikini top and cut off shorts. She was totally oblivious to the stares she was getting from all the Weasleys, even the one she was chasing kept glancing over his shoulder to admire the plum coloured bikini.

Eventually Hermione found herself backing round the corner of the house, sure that she was being followed by somebody, she turned to look around the next corner and ran straight into Charlie Weasley who had, at some point misplaced his shirt. Her heart pounded with the shock as she felt herself pushed against Charlie's _rather nice_ muscles. He looked a little startled too, he was holding onto her waist to steady her after their collision and he was blushing furiously.

She tried to catch her breath and find something to say but no words would come, he smiled at her briefly before reaching up and smacking a water bomb right on the top of her head. She paused for a second before a jet of water shot out of the end of her wand, hitting him squarely in face. She grinned and ran away.

"Hey!" he moaned, chasing after her across the grass "you cheated!"

"No I didn't" she grinned as she broke into a full sprint "And I won't play fair if you don't!"

When they passed the tree it was to find that Harry, Ron, Ginny and George were already sat under the tree having run out of water balloons. Charlie threw a bomb at her which whistled past her ear and instead hit Fred (who had also been taking aim at Hermione) in the face. There followed a furious three-way battle and nobody was entirely sure who had won when the three of them flopped on the grass next to the others.

Hermione pulled her shirt back on and the twins sighed. "What?" She raised an eyebrow at them

"Well, we were rather hoping you'd just hang around in that rather fetching bikini" explained Fred grinning at her.

She tutted at them and shook her head but smiled anyway. Clearly she didn't take them seriously although Ron and Charlie privately agreed with the twins, it was very flattering on her.

Two figures strolled across the grass towards them and Bill and Percy joined them, having come straight from the ministry. They didn't bring good news

"I'm afraid the letters will be sent out tomorrow evening rather than Friday" sighed Bill

"What?" Hermione gasped, her happy buzz evaporating in a second

"It seems that so many people were eloping to avoid the law that they've had to bring the date forward to limit it as much as possible" Percy explained, adjusting his glasses.

Everybody just stared at them. Everyone except Hermione, who looked around at everybody else; she took a deep breath as she saw looks of anger and misery returning to her friends' faces.

"Alright" she said in a soothing voice "This isn't that bad, no listen" she added as they looked at her incredulously "The worst part is the waiting, right? Once we get our matches we know how to deal with them, don't we? It can't be as bad as we're all imagining. We've got Kingsley on the inside and he'll make sure we don't get matched with anyone too bad"

Bill grinned "you know, Hermione, Mum asked us to come here to try and cheer you lot up but you seem to be doing a pretty decent job without us"

Dinner that night was an exceptionally strained affair. There was barely any conversation and they ate little. Hermione's stomach felt as though it was tied in knots.

Breakfast the next day was much the same, as was the rest of the day. Tensions ran high as hour after hour passed without any letters. Lunch passed and the whole of the afternoon crawled away, even Hermione gave up on trying to keep the peace. Eventually, as they were sat around the table for dinner and the sun was beginning to set, several dark specs appeared on the horizon. Ginny shrieked when she saw the seven owls swooping towards the kitchen, one after the other they flew through the window, deposited their letters and left again.


	2. Chapter 2: Making plans

Breakfast the next day was much the same, as was the rest of the day. Tensions ran high as hour after hour passed without any letters. Lunch passed and the whole of the afternoon crawled away, even Hermione gave up on trying to keep the peace. Eventually, as they were sat around the table for dinner and the sun was beginning to set, several dark specs appeared on the horizon. Ginny shrieked when she saw the seven owls swooping towards the kitchen, one after the other they flew through the window, deposited their letters and left again.

They each grabbed the letter addressed to them and tore it open. All except Hermione whose hand trembled as she stared at the address on the envelope; everything seemed to slide into slow motion. As if from afar, she heard Ron say

"Susan Bones? Not bad!" He grinned to himself in slight relief.

Fred and George high-fived, they had been matched with Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, respectively. Harry grinned at Ginny who flung her arms around his neck and kissed him furiously.

Charlie looked at the name in his envelope and then looked at her, mouth slightly open. Ginny was talking to her but she couldn't process what was being said, the twins were looking at her in concern, Harry rested his hand on hers, Ron wrapped an arm around her shoulders but she couldn't focus. Her heart thudded in her ears and Charlie just stared.

"HERMIONE!" she jumped and looked at Ginny in shock "who did you get?"

Hermione shook her head and slid the envelope open. The letter was over a foot of parchment but she didn't read it, she just scanned it for the name at the bottom. Then she swallowed, refolded the letter, placed it back in the envelope and put the envelope back on the table. She looked up at Charlie

"You" she whispered

"Me" he nodded, looking as pale as she felt

"That's alright then" Ginny smiled "at least you know each other, you'll get on really well"

Hermione nodded and gave Charlie a weak smile. She was relieved, she knew Charlie was nice, he was kind and she would be safe with him. But marrying Charlie would mean moving to Romania, leaving everything she knew and held dear and, though she liked Charlie, she barely knew him. Everybody returned to their private conversations, Charlie spoke quietly to Bill and Hermione sat and stared at her hands. They shook, her heart grew louder in her ears and the heat of the room was oppressive. She couldn't breathe and she felt trapped, she rubbed a hand across her face in an attempt to calm herself but it didn't work, she had to run. She stood, very calmly, turned and slid out the kitchen door.

The second she was outside and away from prying eyes, she broke into a run and didn't stop until she reached the tree, under which they had all sat, only yesterday. She leant against it, gasping in the cool evening air, wrapping her arms around her middle.

"Hermione?" said Charlie, from a small distance away, he must have seen her leave and come to check up on her "Hermione, are you alright?"

"Of course I am" she tried her best to smile, she didn't want to offend him by admitting that she was terrified

"It's alright if you aren't" he said, stepping forward slowly "Everybody in the kitchen looks happy enough but they're all scared, too. They've all been forced to get married, a long time before any of them were ready"

"I don't know what's wrong with me" she whispered, looking at him properly "It could have been so much worse, but I can't help thinking that we barely know each other. I'm so scared."

"It's alright" he smiled a little "so am I, but 5 years aren't forever, we can deal with it and then we'll go our separate ways"

"But we're supposed to have a baby in that time"

He grimaced "I know, but the law may be repealed in that time. Anyhow, we'll deal with that problem when we get to it. I promise, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Hermione"

She smiled at his, this time she looked genuinely reassured "I know you wouldn't. Thank you, Charlie"

"For what?"

"For being so understanding"

They began to walk back to the Burrow and she shivered, he draped his arm over her shoulders, pulling her closer to warm her up. It was a totally platonic gesture, Hermione felt no more than if Harry or Ron had done the same and this comforted her even more, maybe they could survive the marriage as friends.

"It's alright" he paused, then he grinned "it's just one of my many attractive qualities. Besides, you've been spending all your time looking after all of us these past couple of days, it was probably time for you to vent a little anyway"

They saw Mrs Weasley's silhouette at the kitchen window as they neared the house. Hermione stopped dead, the look of terror suddenly back on her face

"Oh no" she whispered, wide eyed

"What is it?" Charlie looked at her, concerned

"Your mother is going to want to discuss wedding plans" she giggled

Now he looked worried "Oh crap, can we still make a run for it, has she seen us yet?"

"I'm afraid so" she grinned "come on then, time to face your mum"

Charlie's leave from the reserve was almost up, he left the next morning with a promise to write and arrange a date when they could meet and discuss everything. Now she had had time to think things over and calm down a little, she was glad to have gotten someone like Charlie. Alright, it wasn't ideal, she didn't know him that well and she was fairly certain that they didn't have anything in common. On the other hand, he was pleasant, they got on tolerably well and she knew he would never treat her badly.

She was bored, stuck at the Burrow now. Harry and Ginny hung round each other's necks and everywhere she looked she saw couples, holding hands, cuddling, feeding each other. Of course she wasn't jealous, why would she be? She wasn't that bothered by the fact that everybody else seemed ecstatic about the person they had been matched with.

She couldn't even escape from it at work, where nobody could talk of anything except the many upcoming weddings. 'You would have thought' she thought bitterly 'That, as healers, we could find something less trivial to talk about than who's marrying who'

She left the hospital on her lunch break, head bowed against the sunshine and, as a result, she didn't see the figure waiting for her outside the doors. In fact she walked right past him.

Charlie was startled "Hermione!" he called, dodging through the crowd after her.

She turned in surprise "Charlie" she smiled when she saw him "I thought you'd be at the reserve for a few weeks yet"

"I've got a couple of hours off, I thought we could go for lunch and sort out what we're going to do"

They went to a tiny café in Diagon Alley and, when the food they ordered arrived their conversation lapsed. Suddenly Charlie looked up

"Hermione" he paused "I understand you may not want to leave everything here and move to Romania with me. I just want you to know that we can stay here if you really want?"

"Really?" she was so relieved that for a few seconds she grinned like an idiot. Then she really looked at his face. He was smiling slightly but he didn't look happy. He loved the reserve in Romania, so she sighed. "Actually" she said, leaning forward slightly "I think I could move to Romania"


	3. Chapter 3: Shopping

"Actually" she said, leaning forward slightly "I think I could move to Romania"

His face suddenly brightened immeasurably "you'd do that?"

"Well, the way I see it, I can do my job anywhere there's a hospital, it won't be forever and I can always use the floo network to visit people back here. Plus, it's a country I've always wanted to visit, if I can get a job in the on-site hospital, I would be happy to move there"

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking slightly disbelieving, she nodded, his face split into the biggest grin she'd ever seen him wear "Hermione, you're amazing!"

He didn't stop smiling after that, assuring her that he _would_ get her a job on the reserve come hell or high water. He paid the bill at the end of the meal, despite all her fervent protests, and walked her back to St Mungo's. As they walked, they developed what Hermione termed a 'coping strategy' for the next five years.

"We also need to set a date for the wedding" he said, it seemed to cost him effort just to say the word 'wedding' and Hermione remembered just how much he loved his bachelor lifestyle. At least she had planned to get married eventually; of course this would all be more complex now as there would be the child from this marriage to think about. She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Molly's already taken care of that, if you're free on the 29th of July, that's the date she wants"

"What about what you want?"

"I want to reduce the amount of stress this is going to entail by as much as possible, if Molly wants to take the reigns a little, I'm more than happy to let her"

"Well, I'm fine with it but say something if she takes over too much, ok?"

"I will, at the moment, though, it's not too bad. She consults me on all decisions; I can ask her to write to check with you too, if you like"

He shook his head "No, that's fine, if you don't mind, I am perfectly happy to stay out of the wedding plans"

"If you want, that's fine. I think Molly's just overjoyed that someone's letting her be in control of their wedding"

Charlie looked confused "well, who's planning Ginny's wedding?"

"I am" she replied smiling, "somebody's got to and apparently, that's what being Maid of Honour entails"

There came a supremely awkward moment in which they had to part ways at the hospital doors. A hug or kiss on the cheek would have been a little familiar but a handshake would be too formal. They stood for a second, just looking at each other. Hermione was biting her lip, trying not to laugh; eventually she cracked and just hugged him.

"I'll write" he promised she nodded and gave him a smile and a small wave as she turned through the doors.

That Saturday, Hermione was woken unreasonably early by Ginny, who had grabbed her shoulders and was shaking her vigorously.

"What?" groaned Hermione, opening her eyes a crack

"You've got a day off today, right?" asked Ginny, excitedly

"Yes" Hermione said Hermione shortly; she had handed in her 2 weeks notice only the day before. It hadn't been a pleasant conversation.

"Are you sure?" her boss, Heather, had asked, frowning at the paper

"Absolutely"

"But you've always said how much you enjoy your work here"

"I do but with the marriage law-"

"Your fiancée made you do this?"

"No, of course not" Hermione had shocked by the very idea, she couldn't imagine Charlie ever trying to pressure some one into doing something they didn't want to do "but it's easier for us both, I can work from anywhere, he can't"

"But will it make you happy, Hermione?" Heather leant forward; studying Hermione's face intently for any doubt, Hermione concentrated hard on making sure none was visible. She just nodded; she wasn't 100% sure if it was the right for her either but it had made Charlie so happy and it really would be easier.

"Good" said Ginny brightly "we're going shopping" Hermione groaned and pulled her pillow back over her head "Oh no you don't" Ginny's tone never faltered in its incessant cheeriness "I said we'd meet Susan in the Leaky Cauldron this morning so we can't be late. Besides, Madame Malkin has had a cancellation so we can go and get our dresses today and get that out of the way"

Hermione sat up and looked a little nauseous "Oh God"

"No, it'll be fun, you'll see" Hermione didn't look convinced "anyway, you're my head bridesmaid, so you have to come" Hermione gave in and got up, ignoring Ginny's smirk

They met Susan in the Leaky Cauldron and almost ran, at Ginny's insistence, to Madame Malkin's store. Hermione noticed that, though always smiling and polite, said little to Hermione and kept glancing at her.

Hermione found a dress for Ginny almost instantly – she had a talent for picking out things that suited other people. Ginny had turned her nose up at it initially but, once she saw it on, she refused to try any others. It did look beautiful on her, strapless and bright white will a full skirt. With her fair skin, pretty face and long copper coloured hair, Ginny looked as though she had stepped straight out of a fairytale. Hermione couldn't help the faint pang of envy she felt as she looked at Ginny in the dress. Really, she thought, being friends with somebody like Ginny wasn't any good for her self-esteem.

While Ginny was changing back into her clothes, Hermione had the chance to talk to Susan quickly. She had to know why Susan was being so distant with her so she set out by being as pleasant as possible, hoping to lure an explanation out of her.

"When's your wedding, Susan?" she smiled

Susan looked at her sharply "the 19th of July" there was a pause, Susan seemed to be fighting an internal battle, she lost "Ron told me about you and him" she burst out,

Hermione jumped slightly "What about me and him?"

"That you two were in a relationship"

Hermione would have laughed if not for the tense expression on Susan's face. "Susan, it barely qualifies as a relationship. We kissed once but after the war was over we realised that everything we'd felt for each other had been kind of in the heat of the moment. We're still good friends but neither of us has thought about the other in a long time, nor are we likely to."

Susan smiled, properly this time. "I didn't want to sound like I was claiming my territory" she explained "but I don't know how to feel about Ron yet, but the whole marriage would be a lot harder with a 3rd person in it"

The rest of the day passed without a hiccough, they found a dress for Susan and Ginny and Susan picked out their bridesmaid's dresses, pale green and lilac respectively.

Hermione found it far more difficult to find a dress for herself. This was probably because she wanted to look as pretty in her dress as Ginny and Susan had in theirs. As far as she was aware it would take more than a dress to do that, a miracle maybe. So dress after dress was tried on and she didn't really warm to any of them. Eventually she bought the 15th dress she tried on; Ginny swore that it looked fantastic on her. Hermione wasn't so rue, it was a gorgeous dress but she didn't think she really did it justice.

She had assumed, rather naively, that their shopping trip would end there. Of course, they then needed shoes, jewellery, outfits for the wedding receptions (for their own weddings and others) and countless other things. Ginny and Susan talked Hermione into buying several new outfits to cope with some of the extremes of weather that Charlie had described.

"It's quite hot, so you'll need some summer clothes" said Ginny, rifling through the sale rails

"Not all the time" argued Hermione, "Romanian summers aren't much hotter than ours and Charlie says that it rains a lot during the summer."

"What about the winters?" asked Susan

"Then the temperatures can go as low as -6oc and it snows from about December to about March. Charlie wrote and told me that in January they can have as little as 2 and a half hours of sunlight" Hermione slipped into her easy swallowed-the-textbook tone, she didn't notice the others gawping at her

"Two and a half hours?" breathed Susan incredulously

"Charlie never mentioned that" said Ginny, wide eyed "Oh Hermione you poor thing"

Hermione looked bewildered "why?" she asked

"That's even worse than it is here, it'll be so depressing" Ginny breathed

"I'll be fine" Hermione shrugged, "I'll learn to cope"

Even so, she did let them push her into buying a Warm winter coat and boots and some thermal underwear.

The final shop was, for Hermione at least, the most awkward by far. Ginny insisted that all three of them buy new lingerie, night dresses and a variety of other things Hermione didn't even know the names of. Ginny laughingly said that the many galleons worth of satin, lace and silk would help them to perform their 'wifely duties'. This made Hermione blush to the roots of her hair and Susan squirmed uncomfortably.

As they entered the shop it was clear who was most at home. Within minutes Ginny had a basket full of things for herself and began looking for things for the other two.

"Ginny" Hermione whispered uncomfortably, glancing at the sales assistant by the fitting rooms "I'm not sure I can afford all of this after everything else today"

"Of course you can" Ginny grinned "Charlie's paying, he sent me his Gringott's cheque book this morning and told me to make sure you didn't spare any expenses"

"But that's not fair on him" Hermione sounded indignant "It's his money and _he's_ not getting anything out of this"

"Hermione, chill out" said Susan "If he's sent you the chequebook it's because he wants you to use the money. He won't suffer for it; it'll barely make a dent, being a dragon tamer is a very lucrative career"

Hermione tried to contain the smile that was fighting to break out "I know, and it's really sweet of him but I don't want to feel like I owe him anything"

"Hermione" Ginny grasped her firmly by the shoulders "first of all, you gave up everything here to let him stay in Romania, at this moment in time he would do literally anything to make you as happy as he is" Hermione sighed, Ginny took her momentary silence to press on "and secondly, who says he won't get anything out of it?" she brandished a baby pink teddie, made of silk and satin.

Before Hermione could protest, she and Susan were being pushed into the fitting rooms. Ginny continued to throw various different things over their doors, each pair of knickers lacier and each bra more revealing that the last. At Ginny and Susan's insistence Hermione did buy most of it. She refused point-blank to buy some of the racier items but still (to her utter confusion) found herself paying for 7 silk bras, 12 pairs of knickers in silk and lace, 2 Basques, 3 teddies and (for whatever reason) a pair of stockings.

It could have been worse she mused, critically eyeing the pile on her bed. Most of it was fairly tasteful but the thought of wearing it in front of anybody, especially Charlie made her cringe. Thankfully she was saved by Ginny who burst into the room and flopped dramatically onto the unoccupied bed.

"I hate getting married" she moaned

A/N thanks for all the lovely reviews - I know this chapter is a bit of a filler chapter but let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4: Preparations for a Wedding

It could have been worse she mused, critically eyeing the pile on her bed. Most of it was fairly tasteful but the thought of wearing it in front of anybody, especially Charlie made her cringe. Thankfully she was saved by Ginny who burst into the room and flopped dramatically onto the unoccupied bed.

"I hate getting married" she moaned

"Then be thankful you only have to do it once" Hermione sat on the bed next to her "What's so bad about it?"

"There's so much to organise, mum keeps asking me what I'm doing about the reception and stuff and I don't know what I'm doing. It's only 8 days away and I am totally lost." She rubbed her eyes

Hermione sensed that Ginny was dancing on the edge of a minor nervous breakdown so she quickly interrupted "Ginny, take a deep breath. You can relax. You've got the dress and all the clothes you need, we've sent the invites, your mum has the catering covered, Harry has sorted out the honeymoon and he's got his robes already. The twins are organising the reception" she saw Ginny's face "don't worry, I'm keeping a close eye on them, the flowers are arriving by owl the day after tomorrow and I will personally oversee the decoration of the orchard the day before the wedding. All you need to worry about now is your hair and makeup"

Ginny stared at her wide-eyed "Hermione, you have got to be the best maid of honour ever"

Hermione grinned "well, I try. Are you feeling better now?"

"Loads" Ginny smiled back

"Good because I need to owl Charlie to say thank you for his chequebook"

Ginny raised an eyebrow "pen pals already?" she teased

"No this is the first time I've written to him" said Hermione, Ginny's meaning going straight over her head with an audible whooshing noise. Ginny laughed and left Hermione chewing on the end of her quill and trying to work out where to start.

'_Dear Charlie,_

_Thank you so much for the loan of your cheque book, I will pay you back that second I have the money._

_Ginny has started having pre-wedding jitters. I have been doing my best to calm her down but I suspect a paper bag may be necessary on the actual day. It's ridiculous really she's been with Harry for so long that the ring will be the only difference._

_Molly has asked me to remind you that you need to bring your dress robes with you when you're here next. She also said that you need to clean your hut before I get there. Please ignore it – mess doesn't actually bother me too much, after spending a year in that tent._

_I heard that you just got a new Swedish Shortsnout, I though that they didn't like to be transferred?_

_Anyway, thank you again and will see you at Ginny's wedding_

_Hermione '_

She surveyed the letter for a couple of minutes, it rambled a bit but overall it wasn't too bad. She had found it surprisingly easy to write once she got going. She debated for a moment whether to put a kiss at the end or not but eventually decided against it. She sent the letter off and went downstairs for dinner.

Charlie slung his bag over his back and stepped out of the front door of his hut. He took a good look around him before he left, to fix the place as it was in his memory. He did love the Burrow but whenever he was there he felt a little homesick for this place. He'd only be gone a couple of days this time (Ginny was getting married tomorrow and he'd be back again the day after). He honestly couldn't think how he'd ever manage to thank Hermione enough for being willing to give up everything to let him stay here.

And that brought on another train of thought altogether. _Hermione_. After the letter she'd sent last week with his chequebook he'd written back straight away and after that they'd written almost everyday. She was easy to write to, Charlie thought; her letters were to the point and kept him updated. While they were sometimes funny, they weren't overly emotional. Her thirst for any kind of knowledge meant that she absorbed everything he told her about the dragons and she always seemed interested

She revealed more of herself in her letters than she did in conversation; the few times they had talked she had been shy and awkward but, in her letters she talked without restraint. Her most recent letter was still in his pocket, only half read, it had arrived that morning.

'_Dear Charlie,_

_I can't wait to see all these dragons you keep writing about they found fascinating. I must admit, I've never had a huge amount of interest in dragons before but I suppose it's really because I've never learnt much about them. It could also be that I think of all of them as being like Norbert, which hardly adds to their appeal. _

_Molly is beginning to feel the stress of 6 wedding in 4 weeks. In truth, I am mainly organising Ginny's wedding for her and I've taken over a lot of the arrangements of ours to try to take the weight off of her shoulders. Talking of Ginny's wedding, I will be mainly spending today decorating the orchard so that it's ready for the ceremony tomorrow. Molly has given me charge of a group of 'helpers' for this task but I suspect that, since the helpers include the twins I may just as well do it all myself. _

_I will warn you now that Molly is struggling to sort out the sleeping arrangements for tonight and tomorrow night. I'm just letting you know in advance so that you can prepare yourself for potentially sharing a room with the twins and Ron._

_Good Luck with that,_

_Hermione'_

Charlie grinned and apperated to the Burrow, stuffing the letter back into his pocket as he did. He strode straight into the kitchen and had to fight the urge to stride right back out again. The noise was deafening, this was the kind of thing that happened when the entire Weasley clan was in one place and it could at times be a little overwhelming. Molly was sat at the table looking frazzled as she tried to work out sleeping arrangements, just as Hermione had said. Aunt Muriel watched, disapproving and occasionally offering unhelpful advice.

Susan and Ginny were by the stove cooking something with Fleur's supervision. Bill was in the process of leading almost everybody else out to the pub for a couple of hours so that Molly could have some peace.

"Are you coming Charlie?" he called over the din as he passed

Charlie shook his head "I need to speak to Hermione first"

"Fair enough" Bill grinned at him "she's in the orchard, we'll be at the Leaky Cauldron if you change your mind"

Bill disapperated with Harry and 5 other Weasleys, the silence created by their absence was almost deafening. Charlie slipped out to find Hermione, there was nothing very important to talk about but he had made the excuse and now he had to make it look like he had been telling the truth.

"Tell her tea's nearly

It was a lovely evening; the sun was just beginning to set, creating a pinkish hue in the sky. Everything looked slightly golden in the fading light. When he reached the orchard he stopped short. Hermione had done a good job, there were rows and rows of seats all face a small white arch way (under which, he guessed, the ceremony would be held). There were garlands hung between the trees and they decorated the arch way, it was stunning in a simple way. One thing was missing, though, Hermione herself.

"Hermione?" he called, taking a few tentative steps forward

"Yes?" said a slightly muffled voice and Hermione dropped gracefully out of the tree to his right

"Ginny wanted me to…what were you doing up there anyway?"

"Candles" she replied simply, smiling at him and dusting off her jeans. He raised an eyebrow at her. She flicked her wand and hundreds of tiny lights in the trees ignited

"Wow" he grinned "I'm impressed"

She moved to stand next to him, tilting her head on one side as she looked at the orchard. "It's not too much is it?" she asked

"No it's beautiful; Ginny will love you for ever"

She turned her head suddenly as though she had remembered something "What did she want?"

"Hmm?" he had no idea what she was talking about

"Ginny! When you came out you said Ginny wanted something but you never finished your sentence"

He had to think for a moment, he honestly couldn't remember why he had come to find her. Then he remembered that he had lied, there hadn't been a reason. "I think she said tea was ready"

A distant shout from the house confirmed this. Hermione hesitated "It's so peaceful out here" she sighed "I'm almost frightened to go back in, everybody's so stressed at the moment and your Aunt Muriel _hates_ me"

Charlie nodded "There aren't many people she does like. But it should at least be less noisy in there now, All of my brothers and Harry and Dad have left for the Leaky Cauldron"

She looked at him, a little confused "and you didn't go?"

"I said I might join them in a bit but someone had to protect you and Ginny and Susan from Aunt Muriel's wrath"

She looked at him for a second and then laughed, her wild curls were trying desperately to escape from the bun she had tightly bound it in. Another shout came from the house

"Coming!" Hermione called back, she didn't move but looked at Charlie with a mischievous glint in her eyes "well it seems we can't escape it. I'll race you back"

"Those are hardly decent running shoes" he pointed at her flip flops

"Well, I'll take them off" she grinned "Ready, steady…"

She never got to "go" because both of them, intent of winning, had sprinted away on "steady". They both arrived at the back door at almost the same time wheezing and clutching their sides laughing.

**A/N** - ok, I'm not sure about this chapter but let me know what you think! Also, thankyou to absolutely everybody who has already reviewed, your comments have been so useful (and rather lovely too)


	5. Chapter 5: Charlie's Room

Having finally regained their breath they took the two remaining seats at the table, next to each other. Dinner was a strained affair and didn't really lighten up once everyone returned from the Leaky Cauldron, Fleur and Bill helped to wash up and then Mrs Weasley finally came to a decision about the long awaited sleeping arrangements. By that time everyone was packed into the sitting room, Hermione was squashed between Charlie and Harry. Molly stood up and, with a look that dared them to argue, she told them all where they would be spending the next couple of nights.

Molly and Arthur would retain their room, Bill and Fleur would share Bill's old room. Percy would move in with the twins so that Aunt Muriel could have his old room. Harry and Ron would stay as they were, Ginny would share with Susan and Hermione would share with Charlie. Charlie looked distinctly uncomfortable at this idea but Hermione squeezed his arm gently to prevent him from doing so.

"It's alright" she whispered in his ear "we'll work something out but she's at the end of her tether and the last thing she needs is for us to add to her problems"

This was a lovely thought and all very well until it became time to actually go to bed, at which point things became ridiculously uncomfortable. They both stood in the room just staring at the bed (they had tried to move another mattress in but the room was so small that it was impossible).

"Well, this is ridiculous" Hermione huffed finally "I'll sleep on the floor"

Charlie, ever the gentleman, felt it his duty to object "no, it's alright, I will"

"It's your bed"

"But you're a guest"

"Well you're…" Hermione never finished, she just laughed "I can't believe we're fighting over who gets to sleep on the floor, as if either of us actually wants to"

"I can't let you sleep on the floor" he protested stubbornly

She looked a little surprised "well, perhaps chivalry isn't dead" she said softly "why don't we just share the bed?"

"What?"

"Charlie, don't be such a girl" she teased

"I'm offended by the very idea" he said, she would have believed him if it weren't for the twinkle in his eyes

"Your honour is safe with me, Charlie, I promise. We'll make a barrier of pillows down the bed or something"

Even so, there was a lot of embarrassed coughing and Charlie cursed the fact that he blushed so easily. There was a soft knock at the door and Ginny poked her head around it.

"Hermione" she whispered "are you awake?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her "Ginny, I'm sat up and looking at you. Of course I'm awake" Charlie snorted "what's wrong?"

Ginny bit her lip and perched on the end of the bed "I'm nervous about tomorrow"

Hermione scooted to the end of the bed and wrapped an around Ginny's shoulders "It will all be fine" she promised soothingly "What could possibly go wrong?" She was acting like the older sister Ginny had always wanted. Charlie had heard from Ron that Hermione was an only child and relished her role as adopted sister to Harry, Ron, Ginny and the twins.

"I could make a total fool of myself and fall down the aisle or something"

Charlie grinned "well, it would give everyone a good laugh"

Ginny glared at him, "Charlie, that isn't funny" said Hermione sternly but the laughter in her eyes gave her away. She turned back to Ginny "Look, do you want me to get you a sleeping draft?" Ginny nodded mutely.

Hermione got up, climbing as carefully as possible across Charlie and rummaged in her suitcase for a moment, eventually she pulled out a pale blue vial which she handed to Ginny. Ginny immediately uncorked it and downed the entire contents before Hermione could stop her.

"Ginny! You were supposed to wait until you got back to your room!"

"Why?" Ginny yawned

"Because you'll never make it down the stairs now"

Ginny looked at her, bleary eyed but defiant "Of course I w-" she fell forwards onto the bed and began to snore

Charlie prodded her arm slightly but to no effect, he heaved a sigh "I'll carry her" he offered. Hermione couldn't help but be impressed by the easy way in which he picked Ginny up and slung her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a doll.

After he left with Ginny, Hermione had a few moments to contemplate her relationship with Charlie. She liked him, he was sweet and he made her laugh, she could be herself and it was just like spending time with Harry or Ron. Then she wondered if they would ever be more than friends, he was certainly good looking and charming but she couldn't see herself feeling more than friendship towards him. That was a good thing, she thought, it wouldn't do to develop too strong an attachment to him, it would all be over in 5 years and by that time they would have a child. It was best not to make things any more tangled or difficult than they already were.

She was denied the chance to analyse further because Harry knocked on the door looking pale. "Can't sleep?" she smiled at him

He nodded "I'm a little nervous and Ron's snoring really loudly" she hugged him tightly and he hugged her back just as fiercely. At that moment Charlie walked into the room and stopped dead, looking at them

"Is no room private anymore?" he joked "I finally get rid of my little sister and when I come back, my fiancée has invited my brother in law in. I may never get any sleep tonight"

Hermione didn't answer, she just watched Harry intently, he had paled even further at the phrase "brother in law". She handed him a vial of sleeping draught and patted him gently on the back "You'll be fine Harry, drink this when you get up to your bed and _not before_ and you'll sleep like a baby"

He nodded and shuffled out of the room, smiling sheepishly at Charlie as he went. Hermione crawled back into her side of the bed and picked up her book, they didn't talk much, both of them content to sit in silence, he had a couple of letters to read and then he began to read the quidditch section of the Daily Prophet. He heard a deep sigh from the other side of the bed and glanced across, Hermione had fallen asleep and was lying, curled up on her side and sleeping so soundly that he briefly wondered whether she had taken a sleeping draft too. He carefully moved the book out from under her head and slid a scrap of paper in to mark her place. Only then did he glance at the title of the book 'A Comprehensive Guide to Dragons (different breeds and their habits)', he grinned, turned the light off and quickly fell asleep.

A/N I'm sorry it's taken so long to update, I was doing so well with this but then university happened and life happened and apart from the fact that I had horrendous writers block I just didn't have time so I'm hoping to make it up to you by posting two chapters really close together, review please!


	6. Chapter 6: A Wedding

When he woke up the next morning it was to find that Hermione had already gotten up. He slipped downstairs to find most of the family eating breakfast. Hermione smiled up at him as she finished her last mouthful of porridge and (having washed up as quickly as possible) belted back upstairs to help Ginny get ready, the wedding was in 3 hours and there was a ridiculous amount to do.

Once Ginny's hair and makeup had been sorted, she had to be fitted into her dress, Susan's hair and makeup had to be done, he bridesmaid's dress had to be fitted to her as well. By that point they had less than an hour left. Guests were due to arrive soon and Ginny was beginning to hyperventilate. Hermione slipped her a diluted calming draft and threw on her own bridesmaid's dress; she piled her mass of curls into some sort of style, applied as little makeup as possible and, with all that done, went to check on everything one last time.

The food was ready, orchard had been well decorated and the music had been sorted out, Hermione carried the bouquets up to Ginny's room and, after calming her down again and helping Susan find a lost shoe, began to climb the stairs to Ron's room which was acting as a temporary dressing room for Harry and the Weasleys. She paused halfway up to catch her breath and swore to herself that she would never be a maid of honour again; this had to be more stressful than actually getting married. There wasn't much time to pause, though, because there was now only half an hour until the wedding and the first guests were beginning to arrive. On the way up the stairs she placated Aunt Muriel, who was muttering about disorganised weddings and 'too much noise' and helped to straighten Molly's hat, which was slightly lopsided.

Eventually, she actually reached the top room of the house and knocked on the door "are you all decent?" she called through the door

There was a pause before Fred's voice answered "define what you mean by decent"

She laughed and opened the door, "well, don't you all look smart?" she smiled at the Weasley men and Harry

"Well, I don't know" said George; winking at her "I reckon you could put us all to shame"

She ignored him and turned to Ron who was getting redder and redder with each failed attempt to sort out his collar.

"Come here" she said fondly, straightening it out in one deft move

"Thanks" he grinned at her

"That's alright" she smiled back, then she saw the twins and sighed "Fred, George, you know she will kill you if you wear pink dress robes to her wedding. Besides" she said, turning their robes back to black with a flick of her wand "it clashes with your hair"

She turned to face the others "Arthur, Ginny will be ready downstairs in about 20 minutes" he nodded, Harry looked up suddenly, he had been sat in the corner with his head in his hands.

"Hermione" he moaned, his hands shook and, for someone who had faced down death and saved the entire wizarding world, he looked petrified

"Oh, Harry" she whispered, rushing over to hug him "you'll be fine, I promise" he nodded but suddenly went green and sat down again very suddenly. Hermione knelt in front of him; to begin with it looked as though she would hug him again but then, it seemed, she finally ran out of patience. She slapped him, not hard but enough to make him sit up and pay attention.

"Oh for God's sake Harry!" she hissed "you love her, don't you?" he nodded "you were going to get married eventually, weren't you?" another nod "then strap on a pair!" Charlie looked at her wide-eyed; she was the last person he expected to say something like that, he was glad to see that he wasn't the only one looking shocked. She ignored their faces and continued in a far more even tone "Now you listen to me, you are going to behave like the Gryffindor you are. You are going to that orchard right now, understand? And then you are going to stand up and get married, alright?"

He looked at her, not daring to disagree in any way. He left with Ron and Arthur, none of them looking back as they left the room.

She turned to Bill and Charlie, the only two she hadn't addressed since entering the room. "Any problems?" she asked

"No, we're good" smiled Charlie

She sighed "well, thank God for that"

"To be fair, Hermione" Bill said, grinning "he's doing a lot better than I did on my wedding day"

She stared at him incredulously "_you _were _that bad_? But you're so laid back as to be almost horizontal!"

Bill laughed "the idea of getting married can seem quite daunting" he said, shrugging

"But _you_ proposed to _her_!" she got no response "it was your idea to get married in the first place!" she got no response so she checked her watch "you need to get a move on, I'm going to go and fetch the bride" she left muttering something about men being 'such bloody babies"

The ceremony went fairly smoothly from then on. Once Harry and Ginny saw each other, all their nerves seemed to evaporate and Hermione could finally relax. Even so, it was a while before she had the time to sit down and catch her breath. She watched Harry and Ginny dance their first dance as a married couple. They practically glowed with happiness, all previous anxiety forgotten. She felt a lump form in her throat as she watched them, she doubted she would ever be that happy with anybody, let alone Charlie, she just wasn't that lucky. She was saved from her thoughts by Fred who made his way over to ask her to dance.

She agreed to one dance, fully intending to sit straight back down again afterwards, of course this didn't work. She danced wildly in the centre of the dance floor with Fred, laughing until she struggled to breathe. Then George demanded his turn so she did the same with him. Then Percy waltzed her stiffly round the room and so it went on. Finally, after she had danced with Bill, Ron, Kingsley, Dean, Seamus, Neville and (to her surprise) Malfoy she was able to slip quietly away for a moment's peace.

A/N here's the second chapter I promised, not as quickly as I had planned to put it up but still faster than I have been recently...it may be a while until the next chapter but review and let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7: In a Tree

Charlie saw her go but didn't try to stop her; he understood the need for some silence after the noise and general unruliness of the party. However, when 20 minutes had passed and she still had not returned he thought he should probably go to check on her, to make sure she hadn't been ambushed by the twins.

She had wandered further than he had bargained for. When he found her she was perched on the bottom branch of the tree they had all sat under only weeks before, after their water fight. He wouldn't have seen her at all if he hadn't noticed her gently swinging feet out of the corner of his eye. From the distance he was at, it was only her feet that were visible. It was the lowest branch of the tree but even so it was a good ten feet off the ground.

"Do you have a thing for trees, then?" he asked, making her jump so badly that she nearly fell out of the tree and for one terrifying moment, he thought she actually might. She righted herself, though and looked at him indignantly as he scrabbled up to join her

"I might do, do you have a thing for sneaking up on people?"

"I might do" he replied, being equally non-committal. "Are you ok?"

She looked at him in surprise "why wouldn't I be?"

"I'm not stupid" he watched her intently "I know that you organised this wedding almost single-handedly and nobody has yet said 'thank you'"

"I don't care" she said; he raised an eyebrow "no really; I know they'd do the same for me without me even having to ask if I needed them to. Besides," she said, shifting uncomfortably "every minute I spend worried about their wedding is a minute that I don't have to spend worrying about _our_ wedding"

He frowned "you know I'll do everything I can to make you as happy as possible"

"I know" she said resting her head on his shoulder "but it's still pretty big isn't it? I mean it's hardly a small change to adjust to"

"Well, you two look rather cosy up there" called a voice from below them; Hermione leaned forward to see Fred and George grinning at them from the foot of the tree. She just laughed, Charlie blushed.

"Do you plan on gracing the rest of us with your presence at any point this evening?" smirked

"Or would you rather have some 'alone time'?" finished George

Both Hermione and Charlie blushed furiously and Hermione opened her mouth to retort when they heard Angelina's voice a few feet away

"Boys, leave them alone!"

Katie's voice chimed in "yes, come on, we want to dance and, if you're not back soon, we'll just have to find other partners"

The twins plastered sickly sweet grins on their faces and slipped away with their fiancées. The quietness surged back again but it had become awkward. They sat for a couple of seconds not wanting to be the first to speak, Hermione broke first

"Well, I suppose we should be getting back", she shifted slightly and tried to judge the best way to try to jump down.

"Just a minute" he said "I've got a present for you first" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box "I know it's essentially a sham wedding but I thought you deserved this at least"

She opened it to see a beautiful engagement ring inside. It had only one diamond in the middle and was beautifully simple in its design. "Oh Charlie" she gasped "It's beautiful but I can't accept it, it must have cost a fortune"

"The cost is irrelevant" he smiled, taking the ring from the box and sliding it onto her finger, completely ignoring all protests "I want you to have it, and I will be very offended if you don't"

She hugged him so fiercely that, for a second, they were both in danger of falling out of the tree "you are quite possibly the sweetest person I've ever met, Charlie Weasley" she whispered. There was a pause

"We really should get back" he sighed eventually and helped her down.

They walked back to the orchard in silence until Charlie suddenly turned to her "Hermione" he said "how exactly did you get so high u in that tree without damaging your clothes or your shoes?"

She just laughed and tapped the side of her nose.

Once again he had meant to ask her to dance but, once they were back in the orchard, she was whisked away by Ginny for a "girls' dance".

He sat down again next to Bill who elbowed him lightly "where did you two go for so long?" he smirked

Charlie raised his chin slightly, knowing that whatever he said, Bill was determined to misinterpret it "up a tree" he said in the loftiest voice possible

Bill was slightly taken aback "up a tree? Why?"

"Because that's where she was sat when I found her" Charlie shrugged "we just talked"

"_Talked?_"

"Bill, you're beginning to sound like a parrot"

"Sorry. Seriously though, you sat up a tree with _Hermione Granger_ and you _just talked_?"

"Well, what were we supposed to do" Bill just raised an eyebrow at him and grinned, Charlie rolled his eyes. "I don't think of her that way, she's my baby brother's friend"

"Even so" said Bill, nodding towards Hermione who was still dancing with Ginny "she's quite easy on the eyes, isn't she?"

"Bill, Fleur would kill you if she heard you say that" but, now that Bill had mentioned it Charlie did notice that she was quite pretty, but it was in such an understated way that he hadn't really noticed. She was quite good-looking but she still wasn't his type.

Eventually she made her way back over to him, flushed and smiling

"Come on" she said

"What?"

She rolled her eyes "it will look really bad if you're the only person I haven't danced with tonight"

He got up and joined her, it was a slow song and, for a moment, they simply revolved silently on the spot. Eventually she broke the silence "What was Bill grinning about?"

Charlie tried to think of the best way to phrase it "he was trying to play matchmaker with us"

"So was Ginny, as soon as she saw the ring! Is it a past-time in your family?"

"Not especially, just them and Mum, they like to interfere and over-analyse things"

"It almost makes me want to _give_ them something to over-analyse"

They lapsed into thoughtful silence and both were struck by how easy it seemed to be, compared with their first lunch when they could barely think of a thing to say because they felt so awkward. The few days they had spent in each others' company had made everything easier, to Hermione he was almost as good a friend as Harry and Ron.

They danced several more songs together before the end of the night and left just after midnight with everybody else after waving Harry and Ginny off. Hermione linked her arm through his, she no longer needed to try and work out whether this was an acceptable thing to do or not, it was ok because it was Charlie.

Halfway across the lawn she stumbled and nearly fell on a root that protruded from the grass. He caught her and they both froze for a moment as they realised that their faces were now only inches apart. A wolf whistle from one of the twins broke the silence and Hermione giggled

"Well" she shrugged "at least we've given them something to overanalyse"


	8. Chapter 8: The Build up

When Charlie woke up the next morning it was to a pleasant weight on his chest. He opened his eyes and looked down to see a mass of brown curls resting there. Hermione was using him as a pillow; she had somehow squirmed around during the night and one of her legs was now resting across his as well. He had always had a tendency to laugh when uneasy and, as the potential awkwardness of the situation struck him he fought to contain the laughter that wanted to erupt.

Despite his best efforts (which he was sure would soon crack one his ribs) Hermione was woken by the shaking of his chest. She opened one bleary eye and groaned. "Sleep" she muttered and buried her face back in his chest.

"Hermione?" he said tentatively, he wasn't sure whether or not she was a morning person and really didn't want to find out the wrong way

"mph?"

"I have to be able to get up"

She opened both her eyes and looked around drowsily, then she did a double take as she realised just how closely she was wrapped around him. She jumped backwards, towards the far wall so quickly that she hit it with an audible bang.

"Sorry" she blushed "when I get cold in the night, I tend to get as close as I can to the nearest warm thing"

"I noticed" he teased "It's alright, I don't mind but I do have to get going soon" he began to get changed, she tried not to look

"Back to the reserve?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I won't be back again now until the actual wedding"

"Have you got time for breakfast?"

"Not really, I'll grab something when I get back"

"I'll see you in a couple of weeks then" she smiled faintly as he shrugged on his dragon hide jacket and wondered why his leaving so suddenly bothered her.

"I'll write" he grabbed his bagged, pressed an absent-minded kiss to her forehead and left so fast that Hermione could have sworn that he created a breeze. She pulled the covers back over her head to hide her embarrassment.

The rest of the day crawled by, it seemed that everybody except Hermione was hung over. She had never before had to distribute so many hangover cures in one go. After breakfast, everybody else dragged themselves back up the stairs to "sleep it off". Hermione was left to wander around listlessly only now realising how much she missed the company of Harry and Ginny. She would miss them even more when she was in Romania.

Before now, Hermione had not allowed herself to cry. It was stupid to feel sorry for herself when everybody else was in the same boat, besides it wasn't fair to Charlie. They were quite good friends at the moment and he had been so lovely to her that she didn't want to appear ungrateful. Here, though, in the silence of the sitting room, with everybody else asleep, she allowed herself a really good cry. It didn't take long for her to get it out of her system but she felt loads better for it.

Some time later, two owls flew through the window, both carrying letters for Hermione. The first was a hastily scrawled note from Charlie. He apologised for leaving so quickly, he said it was because he didn't want her to feel embarrassed and that he would write a longer letter later but one of the dragons had just thrown a temper tantrum.

The other was from Ginny

'Dear Hermione,

Having an absolutely fantastic honeymoon! Hope you are doing ok, Harry says 'Hi'. Spain is beautiful. Have to go now; Harry wants to do some sightseeing. See you when we get back

Loads of love

Ginny'

Hermione knew her well enough to know that Ginny didn't underline words for emphasis, if she had underlined a word, it had a double meaning.

Time seemed to slip uncontrollably away until the wedding. Every wedding she attended brought her closer to her own, she attended everyone but, without Charlie, she found that she was asked to dance less and less. Oddly, she also missed sharing the bed with him. There was no heat source in the bed, and no one who was still awake reading as she fell asleep. Before she knew it, it was the day before her wedding and she found herself sat on the bed in Charlie's/her room back against the wall knees drawn up to her chest as she watched the sunset.

There was a gentle knock on the door and she looked up to see Harry and Ron watching her, smiling slightly, her boys.

"How are you doing?" asked Ron as they sat down on either side of her, both slinging an arm around her shoulders

"Not too bad, actually, I thought I'd be worse than you two were on your wedding days but I don't really feel anything"

"So this is it then" sighed Harry, staring out the window too "we're all going in different directions now" he turned to Hermione "I know Ron and I are already married but it really feels like tomorrow will be a parting of the ways"

"Don't say that" Hermione whispered, her voice cracking a little "I don't like to think about it, it makes me want to cry" she rested her head on Harry's shoulder

"It's not the end, though is it?" said Ron warmly, without braking his gaze out of the window "I mean, things will be different now, we've all got separate lives but we'll still be the three of us even when we're all old with Grandkids and stuff. We've been through far too much together to let it all fall apart"

Hermione looked at him; sometimes she was still startled by how sweet he could be at times. "Yes, we have" she smiled, her eyes watering a little as she fought to hold back the tears "I do love you both, you know that don't you?"

"Of course" said Harry "and we love you too" she kissed them both on the cheek, held Ron's free hand and rested her head on Harry's shoulder again

"Besides" said Ron, grinning "who else are we going to go to for relationship advice?"

A/N: Sorry this is quite short, it's been a while again since I last updated, I'm planning on updating again in a coupke of days, I'm going to try to upload a few chapters in quick succession now because the holidays are nearly over and I suspect that once they are, life may get a little hectic and it will be harder to update often. Anyway, I'm going to try my hardest. I do have some more chapter ready to upload but I can't always get to a computer.

Also, I cannot thank you enough for the lovely reviews...I have enjoyed writing this story but it has been difficult and at the moment I'm experiencing writer's block in chapter 15 but your encouragement has kept me going and is the best motivation I could ask for. so thanks :)


	9. Chapter 9:The Big Day

When she woke up the next morning, she still felt no anxiety, only a strange kind of numbness. It was like everything was happening around her and to her, completely beyond her control. She ate breakfast as normal with everybody else, ignoring the concerned glances of those around her. As she and Ginny stood up to go and get ready there was a 'whoosh' from the fireplace and Charlie stepped out followed by another young man.

Without really thinking about, she crossed the room in two strides and hugged Charlie.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to see you before the wedding" Charlie smiled patting her back

"Superstitious nonsense" she grinned, stepping back quickly and turning to the other man who remained as yet unnamed. Charlie jumped as though suddenly remembering he was there

"This is Felix, my deputy best man" (Bill was going to be 'senior' best man) "He's my best mate on the reserve"

"Nice to meet you" Hermione said warmly, shaking his hand

"And you" he replied in a lilting Irish accent "I've heard a lot about you" he added, nudging Charlie, who blushed

"Well" said Hermione quickly, to save him from further embarrassment "Ginny and I need to go and get ready"

"But it's not for another 5 hours" Charlie said, startled

Hermione laughed wryly "Have you seen my hair?" she tugged at one of the unruly curls "It will, frankly, be a miracle if Ginny and I can make it look even half decent in that time"

"I think they got the miracle they wanted" whispered Felix in Charlie's ear. They were both stood at the top of the makeshift aisle in the orchard waiting for Hermione and Ginny to appear so that the ceremony could begin.

"What?" Charlie asked, glancing to the other end of the orchard where music was starting up and Ginny appeared, shortly followed by Hermione. Then he saw what Felix was talking about.

"Well, she certainly looks more than 'half decent'" Felix grinned. He was right, her hair had been tamed into soft curls and her dress was beautiful. It was simple and elegant and flattered curves that Charlie had never even noticed that she had.

Hermione, for her part, was barely paying attention to the ceremony itself. As she had entered the orchard all her nerves had hit her at once, with the force of a kick to the stomach, but once she saw Charlie she relaxed. It wasn't because she suddenly had a moment of clarity in which she could suddenly see how their life together was going to be blissful and perfect. It was because she was marrying _Charlie_, Charlie was friendly and safe and it could have been _so_ much worse.

The drawback to her more or less zoning out was the fact that she forgot to be nervous about the kiss and when the minister said the words "you may now kiss the bride" she visibly jumped. She stared at Charlie wide-eyed for a moment and he blushed to the roots of his hair but leaned forward anyway and lightly pressed his lips against hers. It was perfectly chaste but it made her stomach inexplicably flip and, when they broke apart she found that her hair had somehow tangled itself in his hair. Both found that it was difficult to restrain the smiles that spread across their faces.

Sometime later Hermione found herself standing at the edge of a dance floor with Charlie, both wondering when it would be appropriate to start dancing. Hermione wasn't sure if it was appropriate to dance with all her male friends anymore.

"Everybody's waiting for us to start the dancing aren't they?" Charlie whispered

"I'm afraid so"

"Alright then" Charlie grinned "Well, let's make it memorable then"

She raised an eyebrow at him but followed him into the centre of the floor. She had never laughed so much while dancing. Charlie's idea of a 'memorable' dance seemed to be vaguely based of a waltz but with a lot of spinning at high speed and wild improvisation.

This seemed to break the ice somewhat and Hermione rather enjoyed the rest of the party. If there was one thing the Weasley family was good at, it was throwing a party. It was made even better by the fact that Charlie was perfectly happy to let her dance with all of her friends (something that none of her past boyfriends had been especially happy with, as 95% of her friends were men). At one point, she collapsed on a chair next to him, having been virtually thrown around the floor by one of the twins.

"Do you want to dance again?" she grinned, slightly out of breath "I'm very aware of the fact that I'm not fulfilling my role as a good wife if I spend more time dancing with other people than I do with you"

"It's alright" he smiled "I don't like to dance that much"

"But you haven't danced at all, apart from our dance together"

"Yes, well it's easy for you to find a partner. It's very difficult for me to find anybody I'm not related to"

Hermione had to remind herself of her promise not to cry when the time came to leave. She found herself in the middle of a three-way hug with Harry and Ron and, though, neither of them seemed as outwardly emotional as she was they were both very quiet and hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe.

Then Charlie wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they side-long apparated to the reserve in Romania. Hermione found herself standing at the door to a small wooden hut, with a number 23 painted on the door in peeling white paint. She looked around to see perhaps hundreds of identical huts in neat little rows. All were slightly bigger than the average summer house with a veranda out the front and a tiny garden at the back. Charlie nodded at her to open the door and they stepped inside. She couldn't contain her gasp as she did.

Much like the tents they had used at the Quidditch World Cup, the hut was about 4 times as large as it should have been on the inside. There was a neat little kitchen/dining room, a bathroom with a large bubble bath, a lounge with the largest, squashiest sofa she had ever seen and 2 bedrooms. One bedroom was a double, clearly Charlie's room, it was very light and airy but also very simple, there was no mess or clutter and no pictures on the walls. She had glimpsed inside the other room on the way up the stairs, it was quite small, with only really room for a single bed and a chest of drawers.

Now that they were both stood in the main bedroom, they were suddenly reminded of what they would have to do tonight and butterflies began to flutter in Hermione's stomach. She swallowed hard and, in an attempt to put her nerves at bay for now, she began to unpack. Charlie followed her lead and sat down to write a few letters. He wasn't paying too much attention until he heard her swear loudly and then groan in what sounded like embarrassment. He swivelled round in his chair and froze, trying not to stare and failing miserably.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it, I promised I'd update soon so here it is...thankyou so very much fopr all the lovely reviews. I should clear one thing up though, I had an anonymous review questioning the chapter where Hermione said that Romania only got 2 hours of daylight in the winter. I have to confess here that that came from wikipedia, I've never been to Romania and don't know wanyone who has but, according to wikipedia there are sometimes only two hours of daylight in the Romanian Mountains during winter (which is where I pictured the reserve as being). The reviewer assured me that this was untrue so I apologise for that. Anyway, let me know what you think...


	10. Chapter 10: The Aftermath

She was knelt by her suitcase, glaring furiously at a small mountain of lace and silk underwear. "Ginny got into my suitcase" she scowled "she talked me into buying all this stuff and I did just to make her happy, I was going to leave most of it behind and bring some more practical underwear but she must have switched it"

He honestly couldn't think of a thing to say and just sat there staring at the pile in the suitcase. She stared at him for a moment and the glanced at the clock; it was getting late, too late really for unpacking. She bit her lip, there was something they were required to do by the law and no matter how hard they tried to skirt the issue, they couldn't avoid it for much longer.

"I think we should have sex" she blurted out, and then flushed scarlet, clapping her hands over her mouth

He tried not to laugh; Merlin knew how hard he tried but he couldn't help laughing "not that I'm complaining" he said, trying to push back the laughter that was threatening to return because she looked so mortified "but what brought this on?"

"We have to ….um… consummate the marriage within 24 hours after the ceremony or it gets automatically annulled" she fidgeted with the hem of her dress "And I think, if we don't do it soon, it's just going to hang over us so we should try not to put it off for too long"

"Alright" he sighed, genuinely serious now "are you sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely" she nodded, her face set. She stood up, crossed the room to him and kissed him. Charlie must have been a really good kisser, she thought dimly because almost all thought evaporated instantly and she barely noticed when they tumbled backwards onto the bed.

She woke up the next morning, with a very heavy arm draped across her waist. Charlie was snoring softly and Hermione was so comfortable that, for a split second she was tempted to stay exactly as she was. That was until she realised that neither of them were wearing anything. She tried to slide quietly out of the bed but Charlie's arm only tightened around her waist, pulling her backwards, closer to his bare chest.

Eventually she managed to slip free, dress herself and creep down the stairs without waking him up.

She boiled the kettle for a cup of tea and made some toast before she sat and wondered what to do next. She considered that by leaving Charlie there she might have made it _more_ awkward between them rather than less. Now she wasn't sure whether to wait downstairs for him to wake up or to go upstairs and wake him herself.

She decided on the second option and, armed with a second mug and extra toast, she crept back up the stairs to find him sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Thanks" he mumbled, taking the cup of tea and slice of toast she offered him and shifting the sheets uncomfortably.

"So" Hermione said carefully "what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"yy

"Well, we're supposed to stay married for the next 5 years and it's only going to be more difficult if we try to dance around each other so we need to work out what we're going to do"

Charlie sighed and looked at her intently for a second "Hermione, I know you like to know where you're headed and everything but you need to chill out" she opened her mouth to interrupt but he pressed on "we've done all that the law requires us to do except have a baby. We don't need to even think about that for a couple of years at least. Until then I think we just need to take each day as it comes and try not to worry too much"

She bit her lip, seemingly trying to find a problem with the plan. She couldn't seem to find one, though so she sighed too and helped herself to some more toast. To her surprise 'taking each day as it comes' was far easier than she originally thought. She started her new job and left before he was up each morning and he left to work with the dragons. At the end of the day she normally came straight home, he went to the pub with a few friends, most of the time she was asleep before he got back. They rarely ever saw each other.

This didn't bother Hermione, she had liked living alone and this was barely any different at all. She had some friends amongst the on-site healers, the best of which was a girl called Poppy. In Poppy, Hermione found somebody very like herself, studious, quiet and with an ironic sense of humour. Poppy was also, as she termed it "unlucky in love". She had the same sort of high standards as Hermione but also found it difficult to talk to men that she was unfamiliar with due to a crippling shyness that Hermione had, thankfully shed years ago.

This meant that they both spent many a lunch break to begin with, sharing stories of previous relationships. Despite the fact that just hearing the other girl's many experiences made Hermione feel a little better about her situation, she still could not help but feel that she would rather be in Poppy's shoes than her own at the present. She was in the middle of a strange country, married to someone she barely saw on a day to day basis, she was homesick and missed all of her friends dreadfully and, on top of everything else, she had to learn the ropes in an entirely new hospital.

Most days, by the time she had finished a shift at work she was absolutely shattered so she walked back to the hut and fell into bed, sometimes forgetting to change into her pyjamas and, even more often, forgetting to eat before she slept. Lately, though, she had grown tired of this routine. Every day she woke up, ate breakfast, walked to work, worked, ate lunch, worked some more, stumbled home and fell into bed. She never saw Charlie and so, apart from the time she spent at work she saw and spoke to nobody. It was quite a contrast from the noisy, bustling life at the Burrow where there was always somebody to talk to and sometimes not enough privacy.

So when Poppy asked if Hermione would like to go to the campsite bar with the other healers one evening, she didn't pause very long for thought before she accepted. She ran home quickly to change into jeans and a shirt and found the other healers stood around the bar. Poppy had already ordered her a butter beer and she hopped up onto one of the bar stools and quickly found herself immersed in conversation. She didn't notice the table in the far corner, encircled by a group of dragon tamers.

A/N: Ok, I'm sorry it's really short...and as I'm sure you guessed I have no idea where to even begin writing an M rated scene so I'll have to leave it to your imaginations, otherwise I'm sorry it took a little longer than expected to update but university and life in general got in the way again. Anyway I am hoping to get the next one posted for the end of the week. Let me know what you think! :)


	11. Chapter 11: A Misunderstanding

Inevitably, the conversation moved to relationships, it was pushed quite sharply in that direction when (one of the healers) Sarah's husband, Ben came over from the table in the corner to greet her, only just realising she was there. He kissed Sarah on the cheek and her pretty face split into a huge smile when she saw him. They talked quietly together for a few moments before he shook hands with all the girls, bought Sarah a drink and headed back over to his table.

Hermione drained the last of the Butterbeer and leaned nearer to Sarah

"Were you a marriage law couple?" she asked, ordering a refill of her Butterbeer

Sarah nodded "but I knew him before that" her face held so much pure happiness that it made Hermione's chest ache "he was in my house when we were at Hogwarts and I always thought he was really sweet. I was just really lucky"

This was met with the appropriate amount of giggling and everybody shared their experiences of marriage. They all seemed so painfully happy (even Poppy had met somebody on the reserve and was going on a date the next evening) that Hermione was forced to distract herself with her second tankard of Butterbeer for fear that she might actually start crying in public. Eventually, though, the inevitable happened and Hermione found six faces turned expectantly towards her all waiting for her to share her opinions.

"Actually" Poppy frowned "who are you married to? You've never actually said"

"Charlie Weasley" a gasp ran round the bar and the girls stared at her wide-eyed

"That's not fair" one of them pouted "everyone wanted him…did you bribe the minister or something?"

Poppy ignored her and leant closer and whispered conspirationally "what's he like? You know, in the bedroom?"

Hermione paused, wondering how much she dared say in front of a large group of women. She was on to her third Butterbeer by now, though, and her judgement was not as good as it should have been. She bit her lip "we only actually did it once" she mumbled, blushing a disappointed sigh ran around the group "I never really see him, I'm gone before he wakes up and I'm asleep before he get's home. In all honesty it's not that different to living alone." She sighed and then grinned, her voice rising fractionally "when we did have sex, he was absolutely _amazing_"

"I knew it" Poppy smiled and they all giggled again the conversation turned then to work and Hermione felt suddenly that Butterbeer was just not going to cut it anymore. She ordered a large glass of firewhiskey and was about to hand over her money when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked up to see a tall and, admittedly, really quite handsome man smiling down at her.

"I'll pay" he grinned and she blushed.

Charlie sat at the table in the corner watching Ben greet his wife through the bottom of his firewhiskey glass, cursing himself for his cowardice. He knew he should avoid Hermione like he had been doing; he had worked late every night recently and then stayed in the pub until he was almost certain that she would be asleep before he slipped home. He nearly choked as he recognised the wild curls of the girl, just a couple of seats down the bar from Ben's wife.

Felix leaned over "Isn't that Hermione?" he said, nodding towards the bar

Charlie nodded as there was an explosion of giggles from the group and Hermione blushed to the roots of her hair.

"As in _your wife_, Hermione?" asked Ben as he sat back down he sounded disbelieving, Charlie bristled

"Why are you so surprised?" he asked coolly

Ben had the good nature to blush uncomfortably "she just seemed so classy"

"She is" Charlie replied, staring glumly into his drink "and she's clever and funny"

"And not bad looking either" Felix winked, ignoring Charlie's scowl. He nodded towards the bar "I'm not the only one to notice either; she's a dark horse, that girl"

Charlie glanced back at the bar and froze, Hermione was deep in conversation with a man at the bar, his hand was resting on her arm and he was leaning closer to her, he whispered something into her ear and she threw her head back, laughing.

It was as if Charlie's stomach clenched, he had no right to care but he could not help the anger that gently simmered just below the surface. They might not be willingly married but that didn't mean she had any right to go flirting with somebody else. If she did have to do that she could do better than that. Charlie had no idea who the man at the bar was but instinctively knew that he was an idiot.

"Charlie?" Felix wasn't smiling anymore "Charlie, you're going to break your glass. You know it's probably nothing"

Charlie's only answer was the scraping of his chair as he stood up and strode over to the bar.

Hermione was feeling a little uncomfortable, she wasn't yet to drunk enough that she couldn't work out what this man's aim was, he didn't exactly plan to spend an evening with her in conversation.

He had refused to let her pay for her own drink and had not removed his hand from her arm. He talked to her quietly; he was obviously completely sloshed because he told her he though she was beautiful about 6 or 7 times within ten minutes. He refused to listen to Hermione's assurances that she was very flattered but she was in fact married. Evidently he was convinced that she was practically in love with him because he suddenly looked straight at her and whispered in her ear

"So…your place or mine?" caught off guard she was unable to suppress her laughter. She placed her hand on his and gently but firmly placed his hand on the bar

"Neither. Look, I'm sure you're very sweet" she said looking right at him "but I'm married and it's just _not_ going to-"

She was unable to finish her sentence because Charlie suddenly appeared by her shoulder. With a mask of forced calm on his face.

A/N: OK so I know I said I'd update soon and I fully intended to but life got in the way once again and glandular fever knocked me back for quite some time. anyway, I am now fully recovered and I have 3 and a half months of summer to fill so I plan on updating loads.


	12. Chapter 12: Winter

Hermione was feeling a little uncomfortable, she wasn't yet to drunk enough that she couldn't work out what this man's aim was, he didn't exactly plan to spend an evening with her in conversation.

He had refused to let her pay for her own drink and had not removed his hand from her arm. He talked to her quietly; he was obviously completely sloshed because he told her he though she was beautiful about 6 or 7 times within ten minutes. He refused to listen to Hermione's assurances that she was very flattered but she was in fact married. Evidently he was convinced that she was practically in love with him because he suddenly looked straight at her and whispered in her ear

"So…your place or mine?" caught off guard she was unable to suppress her laughter. She placed her hand on his and gently but firmly placed his hand on the bar

"Neither. Look, I'm sure you're very sweet" she said looking right at him "but I'm married and it's just _not_ going to-"

She was unable to finish her sentence because Charlie suddenly appeared by her shoulder. He kissed her cheek and slung his arm casually around her shoulders

"Hermione, love" he grinned at her, completely ignoring the man next to her "I didn't realise you were in here"

She caught on quickly "Well I could see you were over there with your friends and I didn't want to disturb you sweetie. I was just having a lovely conversation with this gentleman here"

She nodded to the man who had suddenly withdrawn his hand from hers and was eyeing Charlie's muscular arms very carefully. Charlie looked at him, he kept his tone light and airy but his smile no longer reached his eyes

"yes" he said "I heard. Hermione, why don't you come over and sit with us?"

She looked surprised "Oh, but I was here with…" she trailed off midsentence as she realised that all of the other healers were gradually drifting away to other tables with various different men apart from Poppy who was sat by herself drinking a gillywater. She sighed "alright, is there room for Poppy too?"

Charlie nodded and smiled at Poppy who blushed furiously "yes of course"

"Now hang on" protested the man who was still stood at the bar

Charlie rested his hand on the man's shoulder and said very deliberately "I think it's time for you to leave now" no matter how much alcohol he had consumed he couldn't misread the look in Charlie's eyes and he flushed and backed away.

"Charlie listen-" she began apologetically, she needed him to know she hadn't encouraged the other man

"Hermione" he interrupted "don't worry about it. I know you were trying to get rid of him"

"I don't know why he couldn't just take a hint" she said miserably

"because he was drunk and you're very beautiful" he winked at her "I don't blame him for trying, he just needed to know that you're not single"

He didn't give her a chance to respond to the compliment, instead turning away to shake hands with Poppy and invite themboth over to the table in the corner.

Hermione followed Charlie over to the table in the corner, pulling Poppy behind her. As they reached the table they realised that there was only one free seat left. Both Poppy and Hermione noticed this fairly quickly and began looking around for spare chairs but there were none. Felix looked up and saw Poppy. His dark eyes twinkled as he smiled warmly at her and stood up and offered her his chair. She took it, mumbling her thanks and blushing even more deeply.

Hermione smiled as Felix crouched next to the chair he had just vacated and began talking quietly to Poppy who, after some time, relaxed and began to laugh at his jokes and even made some of her own, at which he laughed heartily.

Hermione eyed the lone free chair "you take the chair" she said "I'll kneel"

He looked genuinely shocked "I can't let you do that" he said "you can have the chair"

"Charlie I can't let you-"

He was laughing "we're doing it again" he grinned "how about a compromise?"

"What do you mean 'a compromise'? We can't _both_ sit in the chair"

Charlie rolled his eyes and slid into the chair, pulling her onto his lap. She sighed "I'm too heavy"

"No you're not"

"I am"

"Not"

"Well, if you're legs fall off it'll be all your fault"

He just ignored her and then introduced to her to those at the table that she wasn't already familiar with. They seemed like a really nice crowd, a little boisterous and loud perhaps but that was nothing she wasn't already used to with the twins, Harry and Ron. Conversation flowed nicely and Hermione refused to be uncomfortable about being sat on Charlie's lap, she was so good that she almost convinced everyone.

Eventually, near midnight, the crowd began to disperse and Hermione announced that she was going to go home. She had been feeling sleepy for some time and had spent the last half hour with her head resting on Charlie's shoulder. She stood up to grab her jacket and Charlie did the same.

"You don't have to come too" she said

"I know" he shrugged "but I probably need an early night, besides, it's been so long since I last saw you that I was beginning to forget what you looked like"

She raised an eyebrow "well, I may have to leave before you do on a morning but I'm always back by 6. Is this where you go?"

He looked slightly sheepish and she pressed on quickly "I'm not annoyed or anything, I've probably been avoiding you as much as you've been avoiding me, I've never been asked to start work that early in the morning"

He sighed and looped his arm through hers "this isn't working is it?" he asked as they walked slowly away from the pub. She shook her head, he looked at the floor "and it's not going to go away if we pretend it's not happening"

She nodded again "time to grow up and face reality" she whispered. There was silence for a moment. Charlie broke it.

"Can I take you out for lunch tomorrow?" his tone was tentative, unsure of the reaction he would get.

She smiled brightly at him "I'd really like that" she said happily, the arm he currently had looped through hers slid round her waist instead and she rested her head on his shoulder. And it was like a truce had been formed. The short conversation had shifted the balance and she suddenly felt safe, as if it were Harry or Ron that she was walking with rather than her husband.

True to his word he took her out for lunch the next day…and the day after and every day after that for the next two weeks. It became a ritual of sorts and safe feeling Hermione had when she was around him stayed, it was like having lunch with any of her friends. Occasionally she went with him and his friends to the pub in the evenings as well and life in general was good, but by bit the summer weather slipped away and decided to give autumn a miss and run head long into winter.

It had always been Hermione's least favourite time of year and in the Romanian mountains it was colder and darker. She left before it got light in the mornings and it was dark again before she returned. It almost made her long for the dreary wet English winters. That was dangerous, though, because the more she thought about England, the more she missed it and the more she missed her friends. During the days when it was so cold that her lips turned blue and her hands ached she found herself missing them more and more, it weighed heavily on her and Charlie noticed.

One evening in mid-November he came back to find her led on the sofa chewing the end of her quill, brow furrowed in intense thought.

"Alright?" he said, reaching down to ruffle her hair by way of a greeting, he had always done it to Ginny because it annoyed her but, as Hermione pointed out, she didn't care because it made very little difference to her unruly hair.

"Hmm" she glanced up "you?" he nodded, she wasn't really paying attention though because the frown on her face deepened as she returned to the letter she was trying to write.

"I've been thinking" he began, nudging her legs so that he could sit on the sofa with her "Mum wants us to go to the Burrow for Christmas but your holiday starts a lot earlier than mine. You could go on back when you've finished and I'll follow in a couple of days"

She looked up at him "you'll be here all by yourself"

He shrugged "I've been here all by myself for the past few years and it's never really done me any harm. You've been dying to go back for ages"

She looked surprised that he'd noticed and then guilty "It's not that I don't like it here" she murmured, resting her hand on his arm "it's just that…"

"Everything you love most is at home" he finished, putting his hand on top of hers "it's alright; I would have been the same if things had been the other way round."

She nodded, her eyes shining slightly "you're so sweet, Charlie" she said earnestly as he pulled her into a bear hug "and you give the best hugs in the world" she mumbled into his shoulder.


	13. Chapter 13: The run up to Christmas

He grinned, resting his chin on the top of her head "even better than Harry and Ron?"

She giggled "perhaps, but don't push it"

There was a sudden whoosh noise in the corner and they both spun round quickly, wands drawn. It was only the floo network, Harry's head was hovering in the green flames.

Hermione practically leaped across the room to speak to Harry and, once she had ascertained that nothing was horribly wrong they sank into easy conversation. It took some time for Charlie's heart to slow down. It was part of what he had heard Hermione refer to as a 'war hangover'.

He tried to tune in to the conversation at the fireplace.

"…so I'll be there for nearly a week before Christmas and Charlie's coming over the day before Christmas Eve" Hermione was saying, she looked so happy, he couldn't help smiling as well.

"Anyway" she sighed contentedly, flicking her hair over her shoulder "you haven't yet told me why you're here"

Harry grinned so broadly, it looked as though his face might split in half "Ginny's pregnant"

Hermione squealed "I knew it! I knew it! When's she due?"

"29th of May"

Hermione squealed again and then paused, her eyes slightly narrowed "hang on" she said, "that's only 6 months away…how long have you known?"

"A few weeks" Harry said sheepishly "we wanted to keep it to ourselves to begin with and avoid all the fuss"

Charlie tuned out of the conversation after that, he was pleased for his little sister obviously but he wasn't exactly surprised. He began to wonder how long he and Hermione could realistically leave it before they had to start worrying about that kind of thing. If he knew Hermione at all she would want it over and done with soon and, if he was going to have children, he actually wanted to be a part of their lives. If he and Hermione split up she would move back to England as soon as possible and she'd never leave a child behind. His head span as he thought and he brought himself back to the present, making a mental note to talk to Hermione about it sometime soon.

He realised too late that Harry had gone and Hermione was now looking at him, concern etched into her face. "Are you alright?" she asked

He nodded, distractedly "I'm fine. Just thinking..."

She smiled slightly "Am I allowed to know?"

He frowned and she clambered back onto the sofa next to him "just wondering how long we can leave it until we have to start worrying about things like that"

Her smile slipped a notch and he immediately wished he hadn't said anything she thought for a moment and then said "why don't we see how the first year goes? We've got four more if we need them so there's no rush. It's been so nice getting to know you these past few weeks, it's been like meeting Harry and Ron all over again and I don't want anything to jeopardise that. We should just take things a day at a time and see how we're doing next summer."

He nodded, feeling reassured "alright" then he grinned "this is role reversal isn't it? Aren't you normally the one who has to have a plan?"

She shrugged and then grinned cheekily as she rested her feet on his lap "something on this scale is too big to try and plan, there's nothing we can do except to go with the flow"

So that's what they did and it actually seemed to work. They settled into a routine, reaching some kind of unspoken agreement that they should spend as much time together as possible to make things less awkward for them when it came to the time for worrying about babies.

They took it in turns to make the tea and when Hermione went out with her friends from the hospital, Charlie went out with his friends from the reserve and somehow the two groups always ended up merging. None of the healers complained about this.

Neither of them felt awkward anymore when they woke to find Hermione's face buried in Charlie's chest or his arm slung across her waist. Sometimes it was so cold that it was the only way to keep warm.

Christmas came round so quickly it made Hermione's head spin and she was forced to scour the shops at the last minute for all the presents she hadn't yet found. Charlie came home on the 20th of December to find her in the bedroom, trunk open, presents all over the bed. Her face was flushed as she tried to find a way to make all the presents fit into the trunk with a fortnight's worth of clothes.

"Do you want me to bring some with me on Christmas Eve?" he asked, shrugging his coat off and laying it on the chair by the fireplace.

She looked relieved "could you?" she asked "it would make everything so much easier"

He nodded and moved the presents on the bed a little in order to sit down and watch her pack. He knew her well enough by now to know that any attempt to assist her would be refused. She wedged as much as she reasonably could into the trunk before sitting on it to force it shut.

"What time will you get there?" she asked, brushing a stray curl out of her eyes

"I'll come as soon as I've finished my shift, I'm finishing early because it's Christmas so I should be there for 5"

She nodded as she put on her coat and scarf and placed her newspaper portkey on top of her trunk.

"Alright" she smiled, wrenching her gloves on and glancing quickly at her watch "my portkey is in just over a minute so I'll have to hurry" she gave him a quick hug and an absentminded kiss on the cheek "I've done a quick clean and washed the bedding so that shouldn't need to be done for a while and I made a lasagne. It's in the kitchen for you to reheat if you want it." She stepped back and checked her watch. 20 seconds. "You're sure you'll be ok here by yourself?"

"I'll be fine, owl me when you get there"

She grabbed the portkey with one hand and her trunk with the other "take care"

There was a whoosh and she was gone. Charlie sat back on the bed, realising that the room seemed somehow colder, darker and smaller than it had been a few seconds ago.

A/N: ok, I know I said I'd update quickly but I've tried to be as fast as possible. I'm experiencing problems at the moment due to the fact that I've lost the plot (literally, I wrote out a plan for this story which I appear to have misplaced) so there may be a few issues until I find it. Thankfully I'm afew chapters ahead of what I've already published so it should be ok but if I can't find it again I may need your help, just giving you some advanced warning!

Also, I went to see the last Harry Potter today, if you haven't already seen it book tickets *right now* it was amazing and has given me an idea for a Hermione/George story that I will be starting the second I'm done with this one. Please review and tell me what you think, feedback is so useful to me, especially now :)


	14. Chapter 14: Home for the Holidays

The following days also seemed darker. It was difficult to adjust to coming home to a silent house, sleeping alone in a double bed and eating alone at the kitchen table. Things that he had never given much thought to before had begun to really bother him. Time crawled by and he almost counted the hours until the end of his shift on Christmas Eve. He found himself, for the first time in his life, actually glad to leave the reserve.

For Hermione, time didn't pass quite so slowly, there was no time for anything really at the burrow. From the time she arrived in the kitchen, she was surrounded by people, it was almost overwhelming. She was hugged fiercely by Harry, Ron, Ginny and Mrs Weasley and felt suddenly that she was home. She had always loved the affection and warmth of the Weasley family and suddenly felt less isolated.

After the first day, though, that feeling had started to wear off. She was still deliriously happy to be back with her best friends and back in England but it was ridiculously difficult to get a moment alone. She was surrounded by couples, all of whom seemed to be obsessed with babies and yet there never seemed to be a moment when she was needed to help cook something or make up a bed or help to carry suitcases upstairs or back somebody up on something. After months on the reserve with just Charlie and a handful of other people for company the crowded noise and heat of the Burrow was overpowering. She found herself going to bed early just so she could spend some time in a quiet room to gather her thoughts.

Even so, she had been allocated Charlie's old room again but the bed was too big and too cold when you were the only person sleeping in it. Hermione didn't want to admit it, but being without Charlie was just as difficult as being without Harry and Ron had been. More than anything she wanted a hug from him now. She had assumed, rather foolishly she now realised, that everything would have been more or less the same as it was when she had left England. It wasn't though, Harry and Ron were living very different lives to her and, for the first time in nearly 13 years of friendship, it was difficult to find common ground. That hurt more than anything. They were still close and they had fun and she knew that they would always be best friends, but she was less of a priority now, second to their wives and future children and their careers. This was how it should be, she knew that, but she couldn't help feeling that she had somehow been left behind.

So it was that she found herself clock watching on Christmas Eve, everyone was gathered in the sitting room by the fire. Nearly every possible preparation for Christmas had been made and they had finally allowed themselves to collapse into armchairs.

5 o'clock came and went. Hermione wasn't worried, Charlie was normally a couple of minutes late, it was a Weasley thing. The minute hand crawled around the clock. By quarter to 6, Hermione was starting to worry. She had always been one of life's worriers, assuming the worst in every scenario. By 6 o'clock she had started to chew her nails.

She knew it was irrational to worry like this, he had probably just been delayed at work, he would be here soon. And yet the little bit of her mind that slipped beyond her control when she was nervous began to play out images of Charlie being attacked by a rogue dragon. Though, she tried to block it out she saw Charlie being wheeled into the hospital tent on an emergency bed, wounded and bleeding.

As the clock began to near quarter past 6 she began to mentally calculate how long it would take an owl to get to her from Romania to tell her that Charlie had been hurt. She moved to look out of the window and had just reached it when there was a noise behind her that made her jump. Charlie had appeared about 6 inches behind her, un scathed but looking embarrassed.

"Sorry I'm so late, the Swedish shortsnout threw a bit of a fit" he grinned crookedly at Molly; he staggered backwards slightly as Hermione flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

She smiled "that's quite alright dear but it's Hermione you should apologise to, she's been in a state of panic, convinced something awful had happened to you"

Charlie looked down at the brunette who was now hugging him purely as a way to hide her blush "What?"

She shook her head, laughing at herself "I don't know why, it was all I could think about"

"I'm fine, just a little late" he smiled gently and pulled her back into a hug, ignoring the glances the twins exchanged.

For the rest of the evening, Charlie was commandeered in much the same way as Hermione had been all week. She wasn't bothered in the slightest and took the opportunity to finally grab the book she had been reading and curl up with it in a corner.

Charlie found her there, just before midnight, asleep in the armchair nearest the fire, book open on the floor next to her. He scooped her up easily, silently thanking heaven for the muscles given to him by dragon taming. She wasn't heavy but she was a dead weight when she was asleep and that was never easy to carry.

He tucked her into the bed, changed into his pyjamas and climbed in next to her. Immediately, in her sleep, she wriggled across the bed to be as close to him as possible, she was always cold at night. With the sound of her soft breathing against his chest and with his arm around her waist, he had the best night's sleep he'd had in nearly a week.

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews, they're so useful to me and they're honestly the reason I've kept writing despite getting writer's block. So I really appreciate it :) Also, I think I've recovered the plot (stupidly I hand wrote it rather than saved it on my laptop and it managed to get wedged between my desk and the wall, hence last week's panic) so updates should be faster now, especially since we're getting nearer to the end.


	15. Chapter 15: Festivities

When Hermione woke the next morning it was a lot earlier than she would normally have done. The bed was warmer than it had been the night before, she was nestled against Charlie. For once she didn't move away the second she woke up, she was far too comfortable. She was certain that she had fallen asleep downstairs last night which could only mean that Charlie had carried her up. Without realising she wriggled slightly closer to him, he opened his eyes.

"Happy Christmas" he mumbled, blearily wiping his eyes

"And you" she smiled, still refusing to move because he was too warm, she'd risk the embarrassment.

He grinned down at her and opened his mouth to say something but Ginny burst into the room, without knocking.

"Get up!" She commanded, grinning "it snowed last night and the sooner we get up the sooner we can have a snowball fight and un wrap presents and things!" she ran out of the room again, reappearing briefly to say "Merry Christmas" as an afterthought before clattering down the stairs. They heard her knocking on Percy's bedroom door.

Hermione still hadn't moved "no rest for the wicked, then?"

He shook his head "of course not"

When they eventually stepped out into the garden it was to see that Ginny was right, the whole ground was covered with 5 or 6 inches of snow and the twins already had a snowball fight in full swing. Charlie had expected them to be in teams of sorts. But Hermione laughed at the sight before her before throwing a snowball that hit George squarely on his non-existent ear and sprinting away. It was, as Ginny explained, "every man (or woman) for themselves".

With a strong sense of déjà vu, Hermione found herself creeping round the edge of the house, back to the wall with a snow ball in hand. If you had replaced the snow ball with a water bomb it could have been summer again with their water fight. Just like last time, she rounded a corner and found Charlie laying, or rather standing, in wait. This time though, she was less prepared and with a shriek of surprise she stumbled backwards, skidding on a patch of ice.

He caught her before she hit the ground and righted her again; their faces were now only inches apart. She stared at him, eyes wide with surprise. Both were frozen in complete shock. He looked at her and, for the first time, really saw her as someone other than his brother's best friend or the woman he just happened to live with. He saw the large hazel eyes and beautiful wild curls and the rosy cheeks and behind them he saw the things that made her _her_. The blazing temper, fierce loyalty and compassion and the immense amount of courage that she didn't even know she had.

The next thing he knew, there was a wet kind of smack and the top of his head suddenly felt cold. She had dropped her snowball right on the top of his head and freezing water was dribbling down the back of his neck, she laughed, slightly nervously and darted away across the grass.

Hermione spent the rest of the day making a concentrated effort to pretend that nothing had happened. Her Gryffindor courage had failed her again and she was terrified.

Just when everything seemed to be settling down and they had finally moved beyond awkwardness it had all been ruined. She had never been immune to his perfectly sculpted muscle or his rugged good looks. When they got married she was exposed to them every day but she was also exposed to the side of Charlie that she had never really seen before, the side that was charming, selfless and generous. She couldn't lie to herself; she had developed a little crush.

This would have been fine, she was good at poker facing with her emotions, they would have finished the five years, gone their separate ways and all would have been fine. But that moment during the snowball fight had caught her off-guard and shaken her control. She couldn't stand up to his scrutiny and in that moment, she was sure that he had seen right through her. So she took the coward's way out and ran rather than face up to her problems like the adult she was.

Now she found herself seated at the table in the kitchen, eating the most delicious Christmas dinner in the world, unable to enjoy it because she was almost squirming under his gaze. Several times she caught him staring steadily at her. Each time she met his eyes, she ducked away quickly, blushing. It was distracting to say the least, made worse by the fact that Ginny had very plainly noticed the situation and kept shooting amused glances at the pair of them.

When everyone sat down to unwrap their presents, Hermione automatically headed for the corner that held Harry, Ron, Ginny and Susan, Charlie seemed to have other plans though. He grabbed her arm, pulling her over to the armchair he normally occupied. He sat down and pulled her into lap, barely pausing in his earnest conversation with Bill. She fought not to blush because she had sat on his lap several times before, when the bar on the reserve had been short on seats. She relaxed a little when she realised that he wasn't really acting any differently. In fact he was acting as if nothing had changed at all. As she tore into her first present, exclaiming over the traditional jumper from Mrs Weasley, she could almost pretend that nothing had.

She had always been good at present buying and this year was no exception. While she would always be limited by money, she never minded if the cost of presents caused her to be a little short on cash for a few weeks; the payback was in seeing people's faces as they unwrapped their gifts. This year though, no one was more delighted than Charlie. She had handed him a red envelope and watched his eyes widen as he examined the contents.

Being a healer meant that you occasionally patched up somebody rich or famous. During her time at St Mungo's she had nursed several quidditch players back to health after nasty accidents or vicious games. A few of them were such regular visitors that they were actually quite good friends. Oliver Wood in particular had been a frequent patient and had repeatedly offered her free tickets to any match she wanted. He played for Charlie's favourite team, Puddlemere United, and thanks to him and a few other useful contacts, she had managed to swing 4 season tickets at relatively little cost.

He was ecstatic and hugged her fiercely, kissing each cheek twice before turning to fend off the small crowd, now arguing about who was allowed the other 3 tickets. She continued to unwrap her presents, his was in a small velvet lined jewellery box, she flipped it open and stared, open-mouthed. It was a beautiful silver charm bracelet. It had only three charms on it, a rose, a star and a four leaf clover.

"I thought you could add more charms if you wanted to" Charlie whispered in her ear "you do like it, don't you?"

"It's beautiful" she breathed "thank you so much" and hugged him tightly

"Oi!" Ginny shouted, grinning at the other end of them room "you two look rather cosy over there, are you keeping something from us?"

Hermione jumped and blushed to the roots of her hair, leaping off of Charlie's lap. Charlie scowled at his sister who assured him that she had only been teasing. Hermione didn't look any more comfortable and seemed unsure what to do with herself. Ron and Harry seized the opportunity to pull her into the corner for a quick chat.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked

"I'm fine" she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself, she was very aware of the fact that Charlie was still watching her.

"_Are_ you a proper couple now?" Ron whispered

"We're just friends" she assured him

Harry snorted "Hermione, Bill and Fleur used to be just good friends" Hermione glanced at Victoire asleep on Bill's lap and at Fleur's slightly swollen stomach which she was gently resting a hand on.

Weirdly, Ron was the more serious one on his occasion "seriously, Hermione, Charlie's a great bloke but he doesn't commit to anything easily"

She sighed, rubbing her forehead "I know, I can take care of myself but thank you for watching out for me"

Harry smiled "it's what we do"

Eventually, after they had passed some time with meaningless conversation, she excused herself to get a drink. She had to pass Charlie on the way out but carefully avoided his gaze. He caught her and grabbed her arm as she reached the door. She turned

"Are you alright?" he whispered, looking at her intently. She nodded, just as the twins roared with laughter.

"Look who's under the mistletoe" George sang and suddenly the whole room had stopped what they were doing to watch. Hermione shifted uncomfortably and stared at her feet, she wanted to kiss Charlie and had for a while now, just to see what it would be like to kiss when they didn't have to. But if he really did kiss her, she may well lose control of that careful guard she had kept up. She forced herself to look at him, surprised to see a huge grin instead of the horrified expression she had expected

"Do you want to?" he whispered, gesturing up at the mistletoe

She nodded.

"Me too"

She looked surprised

"Just do it" shouted one of the twins, who was swiftly elbowed by his wife

Charlie didn't hesitate, he kissed her gently. In that moment, the rest of the room seemed to melt away. He was slightly lost in the moment and Hermione seemed to be too so he didn't break away and instead, kissed her more deeply, tilting her backwards slightly.

He was a very good kisser, Hermione mused as she slid her arms round his neck. In fact her knees felt slightly weak. She pulled away from him as she heard somebody wolf whistle and then a lot of laughter.

A/N: Finally got round to updating on time...and I think this may be the longest chapter yet! thank you so much for all the lovely lovely reviews, I really appreciate it :)


	16. Chapter 16: The Game Begins

She didn't know what to expect from the moment they broke apart. Part of her expected a return to the way things had been just moments before, as if nothing had happened. But the rational part of her knew that that was impossible now, that kiss had meant something to both of them and they both knew it. She had never felt as terrified and elated at the same time in her entire life.

Charlie was still staring straight into her eyes, smiling gently trying to read the expression on her face.

"Shall we go outside and talk?"

She nodded and took the hand he offered, following him out into the dusky garden without a backward glance.

"Are you alright?" he asked, once the door had closed behind them

She nodded, frowning slightly "everything's going to change now isn't it?" she whispered

His smile dimmed slightly and he leaned away "is that a bad thing?"

Her brow creased as her frown deepened "I don't know" she rubbed her forehead and sat down on the bench next to the kitchen door. He sat next to her. "I mean, I really like you, Charlie you're gorgeous but I'm scared"

Charlie filed the compliment away in the back of his head to mention at a later date and focussed on the more pressing issue "what are you sacred of?" he took hold of both of her hands.

"What if we go along with this and it's great for a while but then everything goes wrong? What if we decide we don't feel this way anymore in a few months? We'll still have to have a baby and we'll have to stay married for the next few years. We've come such a long way since we got married and your friendship means so much to me, I couldn't bare it if I lost it."

"Hermione, listen to me, you can't know that that's going to happen"

"But you never know that you weren't meant to be with someone until you break up"

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Just be quiet for a moment" he took a deep breath "I can't guarantee that we will be together forever. But I will say that I don't think I've ever met anyone who understands me quite so well or who I get along with so easily. I really think we should give this a try but just take it slowly and keep it quiet. We'll just see how it goes, how does that sound?"

She nodded and hugged him tightly "just promise me one thing"

"What?"

"If you decide that you don't want this anymore, please tell me honestly. I don't want either of us to be miserable"

"Only if you promise me the same"

She nodded mutely and he tilted her chin up to kiss her, they were a hair's breadth apart when one of the twins burst through the back door.

"So that's where you two love birds got to" grinned Fred, not noticing the way that Hermione and Charlie had leaped to opposite ends of the bench. "Mum wants everyone back inside for a picture"

They both stood up to follow him back inside but as he rounded the corner, Charlie grabbed her and pulled her back to steal a brief kiss. When they broke apart she smiled shyly up at him and he rested his forehead against hers and sighed.

"Ready to go back in?" he whispered

She nodded "I think so"

He let go of her hands and they both shuffled back inside as though nothing had happened. Nobody really looked at them too closely, too wrapped up in their own lives, so they didn't notice that Charlie's hand didn't leave the small of her back for the whole evening.

When they posed for the photo, Susan, Ginny, Fleur and the twin's wives squashed up on the sofa, the children sat on their laps. Hermione stood at the back between Harry and Charlie. Harry casually slung his arm around her shoulders and she wrapped an arm around his waist. Nobody saw that she was holding Charlie's hand with her free one.

For the first few days, it wasn't difficult to keep their relationship a secret. Charlie didn't mind that Hermione spent more time with Harry and Ron during the day than she did with him. When everyone went up to bed he had her all to himself. Not that they ever did anything more than kiss. Hermione had made it very plain that she wasn't the sort of girl who slept with someone right at the beginning of the relationship and he wasn't the type of man that would ask her to do anything she wasn't ready for. To begin with, at least, she didn't mind that they had to pretend that nothing had happened; it was nice that there was one thing about her that the entire Weasley family wasn't privy to.

Their secret did mean that she was more self-conscious than ever in front of the Weasley family. She was suddenly aware of everything she did, she was scared to spend too much time with him or look at him too often in case someone cottoned on.

Charlie was struggling with this too, Bill had often teased him that since he had married Hermione, Charlie had been able to look at nothing else. He had always ignored it but now he noticed just how much time he really spent watching her. To begin with it was just so he could try to understand her but he realised that over the last few weeks it had been because he had developed feelings for her and realised just how genuinely beautiful she was.

One evening, they were gathered in the sitting room, Charlie was playing Bill at chess and Hermione was curled up in an armchair talking to Harry and Ron who were both sat on the floor in front of her. Ginny and Susan had squashed into the chair next to hers. Ginny showed her a picture of something in a catalogue and Hermione leant forward over the arm of the chair to get a better view. As she leant forward, her blouse gaped slightly and Charlie caught a fleeting view of something deep pink and lacy underneath. She hadn't even noticed he was looking and slid back into her chair, slipping easily into an animated conversation with Harry. His mouth had gone completely dry.

"Charlie? Your eyes are watering, try blinking" Bill was smirking at him.

He scowled at Bill and continued with the game. He made a mental note of the pink lace though, he was certain, from the brief glance he caught that she was wearing one of the many lacy bras that she had been so mortified that Ginny had hidden in her case.

Later that evening, just before dinner she ran upstairs to find a book that she had left in their room. As she exited the room, somebody grabbed her and pulled her against the wall. She let out a frightened squeak but then she saw that it was Charlie

"What are you-?" she started to ask but stopped when he kissed her forcefully, making her knees feel weak. He pushed her top just far enough off of her shoulder to reveal the bright pink lacy strap which he stroked thoughtfully.

"I like this" he said finally "you should wear it more often, it makes you look even sexier than you already do" and with that he flashed her a wicked grin and bounded down the stairs. He left her there feeling speechless, frustrated and desperate for revenge.

A/N: ok it's been slightly longer than intended since my last update but I've been grappling with where to take this story and I'm working on another one which will be HermionexGeorge which I'll start uploading soon. I should warn you though that I'm going on holiday tomorrow for two weeks so it will be at least that long until my next update. Anyway...I have loved reading all you reviews, they mean so much to me, and thanks to those of you who pointed out the error I made with Oliver's quidditch team in the previous chapter, I've corrected that now :) please review again!


	17. apologies

Ok I know this is strictly speaking against the rules but I can't find another way to explain the reason it's taken me so long to update. I'm so flattered by the continuing support I've had from everybody and it means so much to me. So I really feel I owe you all an explanation.

Aside from the problems I've had adjusting to my second year of university and my increased workload I've also had major technological issues which are beginning to make me wonder if this story has been cursed in some way. I'd written the next 7 chapters or so and just as I was writing the epilogue (I think I mentioned earlier I was going to write it all and then post as often as I could) my laptop managed to wipe itself, completely erasing not only the rest of the story but also the 7000 odd words of assignments that I'd already written...brilliant. So I am currently computerless (which as you can imagine is not ideal with another 7000 words worth of esssays due in the next 3 weeks) but rest assured I haven't abandoned my story and I will be back with you all as soon as I'm given access to computers again.

Until then I can only say that I'm **definitely** still working on it...but in paper form


	18. Chapter 18: A New Year

Stubborn creatures that they were both Hermione and Charlie refused to back down and, as they returned to the reserve the day before New Year's Eve they continued to subtly provoke each other. He was very much aware of how frequently her eyes were drawn to his nicely toned arms and shoulders and he began to wear tighter t-shirts so that often when she talked to him she virtually drooled.

Of course, Hermione was not the kind of girl to take this lying down and he had noticed her sudden love of short skirts and tightly fitting jeans. She always seemed to be dropping things around him too so that he was permanently watching her stooping to pick things up.

By the time they had arrived back home they were driving each other mental. Since neither of them was prepared to concede any kind of victory, the tension was almost unbearable. Felix was hosting a house party to welcome in the New Year and both had agreed to go.

At 8pm Charlie was ready to go and was sat on the bed, trying not to lose his temper. Hermione knew that they were supposed to get there half an hour ago and, despite her usual punctual nature, she was still in the bloody bathroom. As he was about to call her for the fifth time the bathroom door opened and Charlie's mouth began to water. Hermione emerged, Hair already styled and make up immaculately down wearing only some very lacy underwear.

"Nearly ready" she smiled softly; she crooked one eyebrow when she saw his face, as if daring him to give in. He clenched his fists tightly together, gritted his teeth and said nothing.

She walked painfully slowly over to the dresser, pulling a pair of black stockings up her legs; in his opinion more seductively than was really necessary, he couldn't tear his gaze away. Then she picked up her dress and slid it over her head, turning her back to him.

"Could you zip me up?" she called over her shoulder.

There was no answer; she turned to look at him, brow furrowed. She barely had time to see him advancing towards her before her back hit the wall behind her and he kissed her so fiercely she was certain her lips would bruise. "No" he growled into her ear, "You won't be needing the dress"

"Why not?" she replied, trying her best to sound innocent.

"I give in" he said, lifting her off the floor and carrying her back towards the bed "you win this time"

When they finally arrived at the party they were considerably more than half an hour late but the dancing was in full swing and the alcohol was flowing freely. Nobody noticed they're flushed faces, the love bites on Charlie's neck or that Hermione's lipstick was a little smudged.

Charlie was more or less tackled by several of the tamers including Felix and Hermione giggled and stepped aside, heading instead in search of drink. She found Poppy stood by the punch bowl, unwillingly engaged in conversation by a terrifying man who had obviously not noticed the poor girl backing further and further away.

"Ah there you are" Hermione smiled reassuringly at Poppy and placing a hand on her shoulder "I've been looking for you, there's somebody you really need to meet"

The man placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder "she was talking to me" he said loudly

"and now she's talking to me" said Hermione pleasantly "and you can find somebody else to scare" he opened his mouth to protest, but before he even had time to breathe he found himself facing the business end of Hermione's wand "or do you want to make something of it?" she whispered.

His eyes widened and he scampered away.

"I've missed you" Poppy grinned, flinging her arms around Hermione's neck.

Felix and Charlie suddenly appeared from nowhere holding drinks for both the girls.

"Bloody hell Hermione" muttered Felix "thanks for that. You can be bloody scary when you want to be"

"Atta girl" Charlie winked at her, handing her a drink and slinging an arm around her waist. "Time for a dance?" he whispered in her ear, making her shiver.

"I don't think so Weasley" Felix grinned slyly "I owe your wife a dance for rescuing my girlfriend"

"Oh really?" Charlie feigned anger.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Poppy "Why do I feel like a prize cow being argued over?" she grinned, before turning to both men "Alas gentlemen I must decline you both as I have already promised a dance to the true object of my affections" she downed her drink before seizing Poppy's wrist and dragging her into the centre of the makeshift dance floor.

"You seem happy" Felix grinned, watching Charlie watching Hermione

"I am" Charlie replied simply

"No no no" Felix said seriously "you have to give me more details than that. I'm your best friend for God's sake."

"Life is good" said Charlie "And I'll tell you no more for now, how are things with Poppy?"

Immediately Felix finished his interrogation "Amazing" he grinned "she's so sweet"

The song finished and the girls returned, breathless and giggling and Charlie immediately pulled Hermione close to him again, handing her another drink. He didn't leave her side for the whole evening; it was oddly cosy, with his arm securely around her waist. She did eventually manage to get a dance with Felix and a few others. For the most part, though, she was content to stay with Charlie, talking to everyone.

For the New Year countdown everybody headed outside to watch the fireworks. As the clock struck midnight Hermione turned to face Charlie.

"Happy New Year" she whispered, pulling him down by his collar for a kiss.

"It's looking pretty good so far" he grinned at her bashfully, kissing the top of her head.

"So what has actually happened since new year?" asked Ginny, her head bobbing in the flames and she and Hermione held their weekly floo catch up. It was sometime in late February and Hermione was using the time spent waiting for Charlie to finish his shift to have a good gossip.

Hermione blushed "I don't really know, I guess if we weren't married it would be a kind of friends with benefits thing. Promise me you won't tell anyone! I don't want everyone to know if anything goes wrong"

"We wouldn't judge you, you know" Ginny said softly "you've never given up easily, we know that if something doesn't work out it's not for lack of trying. I know you won't believe me but he would never willingly hurt you."

"Even so" Hermione said quietly "just keep it to yourself for now, even I don't really know what's going on right now" there was a pause "how are you anyway?"

Ginny grimaced, "fat, tired and nauseous" she grumbled "being pregnant is no fun"

Harry's voice could be heard slightly muffled in the background

"I'm coming" Ginny called back, turning to Hermione again "I have to go, Harry says tea's nearly ready. I have to tell you though, Susan's pregnant!"

Hermione squealed "Really? I bet Ron's ecstatic" she couldn't quite maintain her grin though, as Ginny gushed on.

"He virtually bounced off the walls when he was telling us this morning. I've never seen him so excited; he's already decided it's going to be a boy. I think Angelina's pregnant too but she's not letting on, maybe…" She tailed off as she caught Hermione's expression "are you alright?"

"I'm fine" Hermione said quickly "no, really" as Ginny opened her mouth to question further "go and have your tea, I'm very happy for you all, honestly"

After a few more reassurances Ginny bobbed back out of the flames, still not looking convinced, and silence surged back into the house. Hermione sat back on the sofa, knees pulled up to her chest and nibbled at her thumbnail, frowning.

**A/N: I'M BACK! At least I hope so, my laptop has been fixed, I've completed a ridiculous amount of work for this term. I still have to visit Amsterdam for a week and find a flat to rent and obviously there's christmas and new year to celebrate too so you won't have my undivided attention for the whole holiday but I am going to promise at least 2 more chapters before the end of January. I also can't thank everybody enough for their continued support on writing this story which honestly has hit more obstacles than anything else I've ever ever ever done and I want to apologise profusely for the huge delays in this but I'm back again now and (fingers crossed) I will finally get regular updates to you.**


	19. Chapter 19: General Confusion

Charlie wasn't stupid. He wasn't an especially talkative person but he was a lot more observant than people often gave him credit for. Something was definitely wrong.

He wasn't going to lie, the past few weeks with Hermione had been absolutely amazing. It was frustrating that she wasn't ready to tell anyone at home that their relationship had stepped up a level but since he wasn't especially sure where it was going either her was perfectly happy to wait. They were spending more and more time together though, it was like having a new best friend whom you found incredibly attractive and just happened to have regular sex with.

It was more than that though; Charlie had had enough 'no strings' relationships to know that this wasn't like that. He actually cared about her, how much he wasn't yet sure but he did know that it was more than he'd cared for any relationship before. And now she was upset or angry. He wasn't entirely sure.

About a week ago, he'd come home from work to find her deep in thought curled up on the sofa. She had been strangely quiet all week and whenever she thought he wasn't looking that frown slipped back onto her face and her shoulders would slump. He knew by now how to cheer her up and normally he could give her a hug or tell a joke and she would brighten up. At the moment though, he knew that the second he was gone she would stop smiling.

The worst part was that she outright denied that anything was wrong. Even when she pointed out that she was acting differently, she brushed him off with "I'm fine"

Felix had noticed how distracted by all of this he was. It was hard not to, whenever Charlie saw his wife a confused expression would spread across his face.

"She won't tell Poppy either" he confided one lunch time "She keeps telling Poppy nothing's wrong too"

Charlie sighed "Maybe there really isn't anything wrong" he didn't sound convinced

"Trust me" said Felix "I don't know Hermione as well as you do but I'm sure she's not the kind of girl to suddenly act weird for no reason. Isn't there anybody else she might have confided in?"

"Only my sister"

"Well, write to her then, she'll probably know something"

Charlie had done just that the following morning, knowing Hermione would be working late. As he was sitting down for lunch Ginny's owl swooped into the dining hall and dropped a note in his lap.

'Dear Charlie,

Sorry to hear that Hermione has been a bit off lately (I'm fine by the way, in case you were wondering, you know pregnant and all but don't worry about me). I was talking to her last Friday and she went really quiet then. Maybe she's just homesick or something. It was just after I told her about Susan and Angelina finding out they were pregnant too (you're going to have about a billion nephews and nieces before the year is out.) Anyway, she was really excited for everyone but then she looked really down. She wouldn't tell me what was wrong though so your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, I hope she feels better son.

Lots of Love from your favourite sister'

He put down the letter frowning.

"Everything alright?" asked one of the tamers, mouth full of food.

Charlie frowned, and shook his head "I'm not sure" he said vaguely, crumpling the note up and shoving it into his pocket. He didn't mention it again until he returned home later that day to find that Hermione was once again lost in thought, this time staring out of one of the back windows and playing with one of the charms on her bracelet. She jumped when Charlie came into the room.

"What's going on?" he asked bluntly and then winced; he had meant to work into the subject gradually.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm f-"

"Don't say you're fine!" he interrupted "you're obviously not, you've been really odd recently" a thought suddenly entered his mind and without room for a pause came straight out of his mouth "You're not pregnant are you?"

She looked startled "No of course not, I'd have told you by now"

"Well you're obviously not fine" he continued trying to keep the relief from his voice "Ginny said that…" he stopped as her face turned a deathly pale

"Go on" she said quietly, certain that Ginny had not kept her promise "what did she say?"

"She said that you started acting all funny after she told you Susan was pregnant" he mistook Hermione's intake of breath as a wince and his frown deepened.

"Is that what this is about? Are you jealous of them?" he asked incredulously, there was a pause while she appeared to try to find words to form an answer, "Do you still have feelings for Ron?" he said more quietly.

She snorted with laughter; his face flushed in sudden anger "Well it would explain a lot wouldn't it? It would explain why you've been acting all odd and why you didn't want anyone to know about us."

"What about us?" she retorted indignantly, "if we weren't married we'd be nothing but friends with benefits would we? I'm sorry I didn't want to have to tell your mother that, but to me it made sense not to mention it to anyone until there was something worth mentioning"

"Are you deliberately avoiding answering the question?" he asked, getting increasingly flustered

"No" she answered, the volume of her voice rising "I'm not because I'd hoped that by now you'd have known me well enough to know that I haven't had feelings for him in years. I couldn't be happier for them, honestly. I'll admit I was a little jealous that everybody else seems to have just fallen into the perfect marriage but I'm actually ok with where we are now. I really like you Charlie, surely you've realised that by now."

"Where are you going?" he asked as she reached for her coat.

"I'm going to spend the night at Poppy's" she said shortly "I was going to tell you earlier but I must have forgotten, it must have been somewhere between you accusing me of being pregnant and of being in love with someone else"

"I didn't accuse you of anything!" He shouted indignantly

"you might as well have" she slammed out of the house.

**A/N: Wahey! two updates in less than a week. I'm definitely improving! This is a little angsty though, possibly a reflection of the amount of extra hours I've been doing in work recently but the next one will get a lot better I promise but unfortunately won't be up until after christmas because I will be working christmas eve and obviously will be enjoyign the festivities as much as possible on the actual day. I hope I haven't made everybody miserable with this update and I hope you all have a wonderful christmas full of joy and good cheer (but not enough to cause a hangover) and I'll post again asap :)**


	20. Chapter 20: Like Coming Home

She had managed to avoid him thus far but it had only been a couple of days. She came home early and went almost immediately to bed so that she could feign sleep when he came in and left in the morning hours before he woke.

It was stupid and she knew it but if she had one flaw it was pride. She honestly wasn't jealous of Ron and Susan, not any more than she was jealous of anyone else. The fact was she wanted all that they had. She wanted to live in England with all her friends and her family, she wanted a proper home not a hut, she wanted children and she wanted a proper marriage. She wanted Charlie. But she wasn't about to admit it, least of all to him. It had been she who demanded that it was kept quiet, that they continue to act like friends in front of his family. To turn around now and announce that she definitely had feelings from him, the nature of which even she didn't understand yet, would be terrible. Even worse, if he didn't feel the same, she would be humiliated.

There was no denying how she felt though. Nobody had ever found it so easy to make her feel happy. She looked forward to seeing him more than anybody else even though she knew he would be there in the house every morning and evening without fail. When he hugged her she felt so safe, like his arms formed some kind of shield and, while she was there bad things didn't happen.

A siren rang out across the hospital with a volume that could burst eardrums and Hermione was shaken out of her thoughts with a start. Suddenly fear gripped her heart, that alarm was used only in emergencies, it summoned every available healer to the emergency room because there had been a bad accident.

She abandoned her lunch tray along with all the other healers in the dining room and sprinted down the corridors to the emergency ward, heart in her mouth. Charlie's face swam in front of her vision.

She was the first to reach the ward; it was full to the walls, every bed occupied and people crying out in pain – _the stretchers slid out of sight at the far end of the great hall, there were so many_ – the smell of antiseptic made her nose sting – _so many dead, people she had known, people she had spoken to, hugged, laughed with only hours before and the screaming. Would. Not. Stop._ – She could hear one man yelling in agony and her stomach rolled as yet another stretcher was carried past, this patient had red hair – _Walls trembled, she could still hear spells being fired, there were people buried under the rubble, she helped Madame Pomfrey apply pressure to one person's wound as attempts were made to heal the poor girl before she slipped away completely. She felt a tricked run down her face from her temple to the corner of her mouth and tasted blood and dirt, she fought not to retch_ – Felix was there, his hand on her shoulder, talking to her but there was a roaring in her ears and she was shaking, her face and hands were tingling, she couldn't breathe –

"Hermione!" said Felix sharply "Charlie's alright, his arm got burned but he's already been patched up and sent back out again, are you alright?"

She nodded vaguely, the panic about Charlie was subsiding and she could see where she was now and the funny looks people were giving her. Poppy was calling for her help, tending to the screaming man. She grabbed the nearest Medical trolley and wheeled it as fast as she could amidst all the people running around.

Between them she and Poppy managed to give the patient a generous dose of pain relief and sleeping potions, so that he slipped into a kind of painless stupor while they dealt with his minor injuries. There was a nasty deep cut on his thigh though which, despite its depth, did not bleed. Instead it was coated in an acid purple liquid, forming a light foam on his skin.

"Poison" Poppy whispered "I think it's the Peruvian Vipertooth"

"Clean it up" Hermione replied in a hushed tone "and we'll give him a bezoar"

"It won't work if the poison has spread very far"

"We've got to at least try"

They did, cleaning him as best they could. It took so long that the rest of the ward had all but emptied by the time they were done. The other patients had all either been sent home or moved to other wards to recover. All this time the two of them carried on working, mopping him up, giving him pain relief and trying desperately to find something to stop the poison spreading. He had started to mutter under his breath.

"Has he got a girlfriend or something?" asked Hermione, "somebody should be with him"

Polly shook her head "I only know him by sight, his name's Jasper. He's worked here for more than 20 years but he keeps himself to himself mostly, doesn't have anyone as far as I know, they sent out letters to family as soon as he came in"

Hermione eyed Jasper's thigh. They had cleared the poison from the wound but now there was a clear purple line tracking up his leg, there was nothing more they could do. By 9pm he had started to mutter and they had run out of antidotes to try, the poison had tracked above his hip and by 10 he was completely unconscious.

"You can go home" said Hermione "I'll stay with him, he shouldn't be alone at the end"

"I'll stay with you"

"You've been here since early this morning; you need to go home and rest"

"But you-"

"Go on, you look tired, it won't be much longer"

Poppy gave in and left. Hermione sat in a chair next to the bed and rested a hand on Jasper's, an hour or so later he stirred in his sleep, his eyes opened very slightly and he looked at her.

"I'm dying aren't I?" he croaked, she bit her lip, "don't lie, I can handle the truth"

"yes" she nodded "we've done as much as we can, I can give you lots of pain relief, you won't feel anything"

"That's something then…why are you crying?"

"I'm just sorry you had to die and that it was only me here"

He took a deep gasping breath in "it had to happen eventually and I don't need any sympathy" there was a pause "my wife died 11 years ago, you know, it'll be nice to see her again"

A tear slipped down her cheek "it must be wonderful to love somebody that much"

He nodded "and painful, but I never regretted it, Amy was the only person who made me feel like I could fly with only a smile"

"I'm sure she loves you very much too"

"You don't think your husband loves you?"

"It's an arranged marriage…it's complicated" she took a deep breath "but I think I could love him"

"tell him" he wheezed "life's too short not to, If he doesn't feel the same he's an idiot" she giggled through her tears, his eyes started to slide shut "thank you for staying" he murmured "it's nice to have a friend at the last"

Within a few moments he was unconscious again and not long after that he passed away with little fuss or bother, in much the same way as he had lived. She held herself together long enough to clean him up one last time, to call a head healer to deal with the rest and to tidy up. She tried to move onto another patient when she felt a hand on her shoulder

"Mrs Weasley" said the ward sister "you've done enough, how long have you been here now?"

Hermione frowned as she tried to make her brain work "18 hours I think" she croaked

"Time to go home now, you look ill and there's nothing more to do. Take the day off tomorrow and we'll see you on Monday. Now go home. No arguments."

Hermione slumped. She left the hospital, forgetting to get her coat or handbag, not noticing the biting wind she stumbled back to the house. She didn't have her keys so she knocked repeatedly until Charlie came to the door, looking panicked.

"Where have you b-" He took one proper look at her and dragged her inside "Hermione you look awful, where's your coat?"

"I don't know" she shivered "I forgot it"

He grabbed the blanket on the back of the sofa and wrapped it round her shoulders, igniting the fire in the hearth and piling cushions on the floor in front of it before guiding her over to sit down on them. "Have you eaten anything today?" he was so worried

She shook her head "not since breakfast but I'm not hungry"

He ignored her and, returning after a few moments presented her with a mug of tea, a bowl of soup and a bread roll. "please eat something" he said, sitting down next to her and watching her carefully. She started eating and found that she was actually hungry, virtually tipping the bowl into her mouth to get every last drop.

"I'm sorry" he blurted out "you don't have to tell me everything and I shouldn't have been all accusatory like that"

She put her bowl down "no I'm sorry, we promised each other when we got married we'd tell each other everything and I haven't done that. It wasn't anything that big really, I was just a little homesick and jealous that everybody at home seems to be in love and having babies and everything. I'm not unhappy, I promise."

There was a pause in which they both stared at the fire.

"I was so worried about you" he said quietly "Felix said you went all faint in the hospital and you've never been back this late before"

She shook her head "I always come back in the end. I'm fine now; it was just being around all that noise and feeling completely helpless, it took me right back to being in the war." She wrapped the blanket slightly tighter around herself "a patient died today"

He drew her into a tight hug "is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head "just hold me like this. I always feel better when I'm with you, it's like coming home" she snuggled into his chest.

He took a deep breath "Hermione, I wanted to tel-" but he stopped, she had fallen asleep in his arms, more peaceful than in days.

**A/N: Quite possibly the longest update I've ever written but I hope you both like it very much, once again the support from you all means far more to me than anything else and to prove it I am posting this update at midnight having sat and written this one for you since 3pm almost continuously, I wanted to update as a kind of New Year present so I hope everyone loves it...see you in 2012!**


	21. Chapter 21: Spring again

April 24th

Spring was coming, tentatively, rather like somebody wading into freezing cold water. The sun was shining again, albeit a little weakly, casting a lemon juice light on everything, everything was budding and teetering on the edge of waking up after a long bitter winter.

From the moment her feet hit the ground Hermione could feel it, she had never been a winter person and the return of the sun always lifted her spirit a little. The Burrow was teeming with life; she could already hear the noise from halfway down the dusty road, like the humming of a beehive. It was the sound of contentment and she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she drew nearer, she was home.

It was far warmer here than in Romania and she slung her heavy coat across her arm, walking down the lane in just a thin jumpers and skirt. She was humming to herself, lost in her own little world when there was a yelp from the house followed by a loud crash and two figures hurtled out of the house towards her, both of them flung their arms around her, knocking her to the floor in their enthusiasm.

"Hermione!" Harry gasped "Why didn't you say you were coming to see us?"

"Where's Charlie?" asked Ron

She tried to speak but found herself completely winded.

"Now, now children" said another voice from somewhere above them, Fred extended a hand to help Hermione up, having only just arrived on the scene

"What have we told you about squashing pretty ladies?" George finished and both the twins hugged Hermione so tightly that she all but stopped breathing again. For the briefest moment her head span and she felt intensely dizzy, when she recovered she found herself sat on a nearby tree stump with the four boys apologising profusely for being 'too rough' with her.

"Charlie's coming this evening" she wheezed when she could finally speak "I finished work before he did so I'm here now. I hear congratulations are in order for all of you, you're all going to be Dads soon" she beamed at them all and they positively glowed back "How's Ginny?" She asked Harry, they all winced.

"She's not happy" said Fred

"In fact she's bloody terrifying at the moment" George finished

"Maybe you'll cheer her up" said Harry "she's always happier after she's seen you. She says it's nice to see another girl when she spends so much time surrounded by men."

As soon as Hermione found her feet again the five of them headed back to the house where Hermione found Ginny led on the sofa looking miserable. She brightened up considerably when she saw the group by the door.

"You're back!" she grinned and tried to stand up to greet Hermione but winced and led back down again. Susan, Angelina and Katie managed to get across the room to hug Hermione, despite their swollen stomachs.

"Come and see me too" wailed a plaintive voice from the sofa

"Of course" Hermione smiled, "how are you Ginny?" she knelt next to the sofa and hugged her best friend tightly.

"Not good" was the teary reply

"What's wrong?"

"I feel sick and my back keeps aching"

Hermione sat up straight "all the time or on and off?"

Ginny frowned "on and off" she said "it gets really bad, like there's an elephant sat on me and then it disappears"

Hermione heaved an exasperated sigh "I don't suppose your stomach hurts then too?" Ginny nodded "how frequently is this happening?"

Ginny frowned "maybe ten or fifteen minutes" a sudden look of comprehension dawned on her face "Hermione, you don't think this is…? But it's more than three weeks early!"

Hermione nodded

"This is what?" asked Harry looking worried.

"I think she's in labour" Hermione said, looking closely at Ginny and feeling her forehead for fever "you probably need to get her to St Mungo's to double check and everything but I'm fairly certain."

For the next few minutes the Burrow was in total uproar. Harry, surprisingly was the calmest of the all and had Ginny through the floo and was following with an overnight bag within ten minutes. Ron took control of everybody else and it was decided that Molly and Arthur would go to the hospital too while the others would stay behind and wait for an owl to bring any news.

As is traditional during these moments nobody seemed to know what to do with themselves, most people seemed to resort to wandering aimlessly around, unable to settle to anything. Hermione turned to the thing she normally did in times of stress or boredom, baking. Thankfully she was in a house full of people who were perfectly happy to eat sweet things; she had to keep close watch on the mixing bowl lest spoonfuls of batter mysteriously go missing.

As she was putting the finishing touches on a large sponge cake she saw a familiar shape in the road outside. Charlie was here.

"Good evening to you too" he chuckled as she launched herself at him and kissed him soundly "So what have I missed?"

"Quite a lot actually" she said, looping an arm through his as they headed back to the house "Ginny's gone into labour so she's at the hospital with Harry and your parents and everybody else is just waiting around for news"

"Have you been baking again?" he grinned, interlacing his fingers with hers

She looked startled "How did you know?"

"You've got flour on your cheek" he brushed it away and she blushed

"I really wanted some cake and there wasn't any in the kitchen" she explained as she opened the door into the kitchen, revealing a kitchen full of hungry looking Weasley men and their wives staring at a table covered in cookies and beautifully decorated cupcakes.

"Hermione, can I just have one pleeeaaasseee?" Susan wheedled

Hermione shrugged "help yourself, they aren't for anything special I just wanted something to do"

Nothing else needed to be said, the entire family, Charlie included dived onto the table and began to demolish the lot. As Ron was savouring the very last crumbs an owl flew through the window and dropped a letter onto Hermione's lap. She read it quickly once and grinned before reading it aloud for everyone.

'Ginny's had her baby, a healthy baby boy. He's a little small but doing well, they're going to name him James Sirius Potter, don't worry about coming to visit, the hospital visiting hours are finished for today and Ginny is planning on coming home first thing tomorrow morning. Arthur and I will be back soon.

Molly x'

There was a loud cheer from the twins and, in an instant, all tension dispersed. It was getting dark and nobody was really hungry so everyone sort of migrated towards the sitting room. Charlie took his suitcase up to his and Hermione's room. When he came back down Hermione was no longer in the kitchen, he found her sat on the ground under the same tree they had sat in when he had handed her the engagement ring.

"I've got a present for you" he said, sitting down next to her and pulling a small box out of his pocket.

"Charlie you don't need to buy me things" she said reproachfully, leaning into his shoulder

"But I wanted to; it's nothing too big anyway"

She opened the box and found a tiny silver dragon charm inside, with a twinkling amber eye. She gasped "It's beautiful Charlie" she clipped it onto the charm bracelet he had given her, she had never taken it off. They lapsed into a comfortable silence and watched a few fireflies flitting about above them.

"We've been married nearly a year" she said suddenly "it's gone so quickly"

He smiled "it's not been completely unbearable then?" he teased

She nudged him "of course not"

"Hermione?"

"Hmmm?"

"There's something I want to tell you, don't worry, nothing's wrong" he said hastily as her brow furrowed "it's just I love you, more than anyone else. I just thought you might want to know" he relaxed back into the tree as though he'd done nothing more than just told her the time.

She stared at him in complete shock for a second before pulling him into a fierce kiss "I love you too" she grinned "I especially love how blunt you can be sometimes"

He beamed at her, helping her to her feet as they headed back to the house. "So I suppose I should ask you if you wouldn't mind staying married to me after our mandatory 5 years together is finished?"

"Of course I will you idiot" she giggled as he picked her up and spun her round so quickly that the stars in the sky blurred.

**A/N: Next chapter up! Only a couple more to go now until the ending, sadly. I am working on the plot for another one though :) again I want to thank everyone for their support (at the risk of sounding like a gushing moron). Also I got an anonymous review over the last chapter which was basically a bit of a rant about how bad my spelling was throughout the story and that I should "learn where to use capitals" I'm not going to point out that that specific review contained at least two typos. I am completely open to criticism if it's constructive and preferably has something positive to say somewhere but this wasn't one of those reviews so no more of those please!**


	22. Chapter 22: A New Arrival

The whole house was out of bed early the next morning. When Charlie woke, Hermione was already dressed. She sat in the window of their bedroom reading quietly and waiting for him to wake up. He took a moment to watch her before she realised he had woken up. She was wearing his Weasley jumper over her pyjama shorts and top; it absolutely swamped her and looked like she was wearing a baggy mini dress. Her hair was tousled from last night's activities and the sunlight shone in at the window behind her so that she looked as though she was glowing. But then perhaps that was just her. At that moment, she glanced across at him and saw he was awake, she smiled

"Hey, you're awake"

He nodded and continued to watch her

"What?" she smiled, obviously uncomfortable with this level of attention

He yawned and stretched lazily "I was just wondering why you're all the way over there when there's a space in a nice warm bed"

She giggled and came over to perch on the end of the bed "I wanted to be awake in time to meet my new nephew when he comes home for the first time"

"They won't be here for ages yet and you'll have billions of nephews and nieces" he pouted, running a hand up her bare thigh and making her shiver "meanwhile I'm being neglected"

"Well I was thinking I might go downstairs and make more cake" she said, picking at her sleeve, they both knew she wasn't really going anywhere

"Well you were thinking wrong" he grinned, seizing her wrist and tugging her back into the bed next to him.

She purred contentedly as she snuggled down into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Happy?" he whispered

She kissed his cheek "ecstatic"

When they had finally had breakfast and dressed, they joined everyone else downstairs in the sitting room, waiting for the others to return. There was a bizarre sense of déjà vu for both of them as they realised that once again only one chair was free. This time she didn't think twice about perching in his lap, in fact she rested her head against his shoulder and interlaced their fingers in her lap.

Ron raised an eyebrow at them "is something going on between you two?" he asked, as one the other occupants of the room turned their heads to stare too.

Charlie glanced at Hermione, if there was ever going to be a moment in which she was going to get scared and back away, this would be it. But she did nothing of the sort. Instead she beamed at Ron before turning to her husband and kissing him soundly.

"Finally!" Bill laughed "took the two of you long enough"

"Urgh, get a room will you?" Ron muttered, watching Hermione giggle at something Charlie had whispered in her ear.

"You can't talk" said Fred darkly

Ron looked puzzled

"It's not like you weren't taught how to use a silencing charm" George scowled.

Susan squeaked and buried her head in Ron's shoulder her face scarlet, Ron tried to not look embarrassed and failed miserably. Fortunately, at that point the hearth roared with bright green flames and Ginny emerged, followed by Harry who was holding a tiny bundle of blankets so gently that he looked afraid it may break.

The next hour or so flew by; Ginny disappeared inside a ring of people all asking her questions and little James was duly fussed over. Harry looked as though he might be about to burst with unrestrained pride. Hermione, never wanting anybody to feel that she was crowding them, made cups of tea which she handed round to everyone along with a few slices of cake she had managed to preserve from yesterday. When she came back Ginny was waiting for her in the doorway, baby sleeping peacefully in her arms.

"Hello" she grinned mischievously "Charlie's been catching me up on what's been happening between you two; I want to hear all the gossip"

"Yeah yeah" Hermione blushed "just give me my nephew"

She took James from Ginny and cradled him against her. "He's perfect" she breathed, taking in the silk-soft skin, downy black hair and rosy cheeks.

"Would you like to be his godmother?" Ginny whispered

"Of course I would" Hermione beamed, flinging her spare arm around Ginny, her eyes tearing up a little

"Far be it from me to interrupt this rather touching little scene" said Charlie "but mum wants the baby in here for photos and stuff"

"Just a second" said Ginny, "we're having a girly catch up" she waited until he disappeared back into the sitting room "there's something else isn't there?"

Hermione was startled "what are you talking about?"

Ginny rolled her eyes "I know you too well, you're keeping something secret aren't you?"

"I don't know what-"

"Yes you do, don't worry, I won't make you tell me. Not for a bit anyway"

Hermione sighed "Ok, there is something but I don't want to steal your thunder"

"Have my bloody thunder with my blessing" Ginny grumbled "I know everyone wants to see James and everything but right now I'd kill for a moment's peace just the three of us."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, "I'll think about it"

Mrs Weasley stuck her head out the doorway "Photo time!" she trilled, brandishing a camera.

The next morning was unseasonably warm and sunny and it was generally decided that a picnic would be ideal. Even little James was there in a Moses basket, occasionally gurgling up at the many strange faces that kept appearing above him.

Hermione turned to Harry "congratulations" she said earnestly, trying not to get all teary again "You so deserve to be this happy" Harry hugged her tightly

"So do you" he replied quietly

"I think I am" she smiled glancing at Charlie who was walking over to her from the house.

"What about me?" asked Ron, his mouth full of food

"You deserve to be happy too Ron" Hermione giggled, getting to her feet and turning to face her husband.

"I've been thinking" he said quickly "I've been offered a transfer to a different reserve"

She was stunned into silence so he carried on

"Felix is going to go too and I'm pretty sure Poppy will be following him wherever he ends up going. I think we should go too. It's a really nice place, up in the French Alps, I know you love France. It'll be easier to come home too and it's much safer for children too, the houses are a mile away from the actual reserve."

She still gawped at him "safer for children?"

"Yes" he nodded at the Moses basket next to Ginny "We should get one of those"

"Why didn't you mention any of this sooner?"

"I wanted to be sure that it was actually a possibility first, I got an owl a few minutes ago making me a formal offer. So" he took hold of both of her hands "do you fancy it?"

She flung her arms around his neck "absolutely"

"Talking of children and similar small beings" said Fred loudly "When are you two going to get going?"

"You'll have to get a move on" George joined in "or you'll get left behind"

"Maybe we're happy to wait a while" Charlie replied quickly, tightening his arm around her waist as though he was afraid their teasing was upsetting her.

"Maybe it won't be that long a wait" she said quietly "7 and a half months isn't very long in the general scheme of things"

Charlie froze and turned to stare at her wide-eyed, silence fell over the whole group as everybody listened. Apart from James, of course, who began crying but then few infants really appreciate the drama of moments such as these. "are you saying that you're…" he tailed off

She nodded

"Definitely, I took three tests last night; they all said the same thing. You are pleased aren't you?" she looked anxious suddenly.

There was a moment of complete silence before he let out a shout of pure joy and picked her up, spinning her around and kissing her without a thought. Then he stopped suddenly "you've known for 6 weeks?"

She nodded and then smiled "I wanted to be sure first" she giggled

"You know I love you don't you?"

"You may have mentioned it" she kissed him again "I love you too"

A/N: Nearly done! I'm going to write an epilogue but that may take a little longer given that I'm starting a new term on monday. Some people have been asking for me to write in that Charlie and Hermione have triplets but I'll leave that up to you. As always thanks to everybody who's reviewed and given me motivation despite the numerous hurdles that this story has hit on the way. I'll try and do a bit of a shout out to people in the epilogue but if I can't thank you very very much and I hope you enjoyed this very much.


	23. Chapter 23: Epilogue

Epilogue

It was a perfect afternoon, the sunshine was casting a golden light on the flowers and the children ran around barefoot, shrieking and giggling as Harry and Charlie sprayed water at them with their wands.

"It's a beautiful house" Ginny sighed, sipping her drink and gently rubbing Lily's back as she slept soundly on her chest. She was barely more than 2 months old and had been the object of much adoration that afternoon.

"I quite like it" Hermione smiled contentedly, watching her two tiny sons tearing around. Joshua was nearly 5 years old now and he hero-worshipped James Potter who was sprinting slightly ahead, his long legs meaning he could move faster. Just behind was little Daniel, her other son, he was barely 2 and his chubby little legs were nowhere near powerful enough to keep with up the pace of the older boys and he quickly gave up and bumped down on his bottom next to Albus and Ron and Susan's two girls, Emma and Isabelle. Both of Hermione's boys had her russet curls and Joshua had her large brown eyes and slim build, but Daniel could have been Charlie's mini me except for the hair.

"Thank you for having all of us to stay" Susan sighed, stretching her legs out to give them the chance to tan a little and rubbing her swollen tummy.

"It's no problem, I miss you all. You're welcome here whenever you want to stop over"

"I still think it was very brave given everything you're contending with at the moment, getting ready for the new baby and everything"

"We've got a week or so yet" she said, nodding to her own large stomach "This will be the last one I think"

"You said that about Daniel" Susan teased "How did Charlie take it when you told him?"

"Like a big child" Hermione giggled, watching as her husband picked up their youngest son and threw him up into the air before catching him, setting him down and making his way over with Harry and Ron "He's always ecstatic"

"Of course I am" said Charlie, dropping onto the bench next to her and lacing his fingers into hers

"You always said you would never have children" Ron said, in an almost accusatory tone

"He also used to say he would always be a bachelor" Harry grinned, kissing the top of Ginny's head and taking the baby from her for a cuddle

"What can I say?" Charlie grinned "I was presented with a far better option"

Hermione sighed again "So perhaps the marriage law wasn't such a bad thing after all, we may never have gotten together without it"

"No you would have done" said Ginny "you're so weirdly perfect together that it had to happen somehow"

"I think we've made the best we possibly could of this marriage, I wouldn't change a single thing" Charlie smiled and Harry and Ron pretended to vomit.

The conversation may have continued further but the doorbell rang through the house, Hermione struggled up to answer it. She was followed back into the garden a few minutes later by Felix and Poppy and their daughter Grace who gave a squeal of utter delight upon seeing all the other children and toddled unsteadily over to join them.

Charlie had been right, there was very little that could have improved the scene in front of her, Hermione thought. She was surrounded by her best friends and their children, her beautiful sons and a loving husband. For the briefest second she was taken back to the kitchen of the Burrow, staring at Charlie across the table, knowing full well that he was exactly as terrified as she was. They had both been uncertain of their future, sure that this was the worst thing that would ever happen to them. Now, she was sure that no picture would ever be more perfect than the one she could see in front of her. Charlie kissed her lightly and wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. She rubbed her stomach as it twinged slightly; nothing could her any more content than she was at this exact moment, except perhaps one.

Less than 24 hours later Elizabeth Rose Weasley made her way into the world, nearly 2 weeks early. Hermione's picture was complete.

**A/N: **Ok, so it didn't include triplets, between pms and reviews the vote for and against was pretty much 50 50, I tried writing both but, as some people argued in their reviews, triplets just seemed a bit much. I'm also sorry that this isn't quite up to my normal word count, I'm not sure that I'm particularly happy with this ending but I wanted to get it done before the workload got too much and I had to keep putting it off again. I may come back and rewrite it in the summerbut, even so, I hope this was something like the result you were hoping for :) and once again (without wishing to sound too sentimental and stuff) a huge thank you and a virtual hug to everybody who has reviewed or even read this story x


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